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MAJOR J. OGDEN MURRAY 

(1905) 



THE 

IMMORTAL SIX 

HUNDRED 



A STORY OF CRUELTY TO CONFED- 
ERATE PRISONERS OF WAR 



BY 

MAJOR J. OGDEN MURRAY 

ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED 



WINCHESTER, VA. 

THE EDDY PRESS CORPORATION 

1905 



JEHARY or CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

APR 10 1906 

CoayriL'ht Entr; 



"w^-' w Mumw' i III I 



// 



Copyright, 1905, by 
J. Ogden Murray. 



Published, March, 1905. 



Price, $2.00. 



DEDICATION 

To the dead and living comrades of the 
Immortal Six Hundred, — Confederate officers, 
prisoners of war, — who were confined in the 
stockade on Morris Island, South Carolina, un- 
der fire of our own guns shelling that island; 
and who were subsequently starved on rations 
of rotten corn meal and onion pickle at Fort Pu- 
laski, Georgia, and Hilton Head, South Caro- 
lina, 1864-65, by order of Edwin M. Stanton, 
United States Secretary of War — to all who 
remained true unto the end, under the terrible 
ordeal of fire and starvation, this history is 
affectionately inscribed with a comrade's love. 

J. OGDEN MURRAY. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter One. — History of the inci- 
dents leading up to the retaliation meas- 
ures inflicted upon the six hundred 
Confederate officers, prisoners of war, 
with correspondence official between Gen. 
J. G. Foster, U. S. A., Department of the 
South, and Gen. Sam Jones, C. S. A., com- 
manding Charleston, S. C. Violation of 
cartel, etc., etc 9 

Chapter Two. — Fort Delaware. Rum- 
ors of exchange. Order to get ready for 
exchange. Saying good-bye. Packing us 
on steamship "Crescent City." 55 

Chapter Three. — March from old 
schooner hulk to prison stockade. Hot 
sun. Men sick forced to move on. Brutal 
white officers and nigger soldiers. Prison 
stockade. Water, rations, and shelter 92 

Chapter Four. — Hilton Head Prison.. 195 

List of the Immortals 233 

List of the prisoners of war who took 
the oath of allegiance 274 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

CHAPTER ONE. 
History of the incidents leading up to the 
retaliation measures inflicted upon the six 
hundred Confederate officers, prisoners of 
war, with correspondence official between 
Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., Department 
of the South, and Gen. Sam Jones, 
C. S. A., commanding Charleston, S. C. 
Violation of cartel, etc., etc. 

THERE is no apology to be made 
by me for the publication of this 
work or history of the six hun- 
dred Confederate prisoners of war con- 
fined on Morris Island by order of the 
Federal government. It is put in print 
for two reasons: First, to preserve the 
record of this gallant band; second, to 
give to the world a true history of the 
wanton cruelty inflicted upon helpless 
prisoners of war, without the least shadow 
of excuse. The only information that the 
United States government had that there 
were six hundred Union soldiers, prison- 
ers of war, under fire in Charleston, S. C, 
was based upon the word of runaway 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

niggers, Confederate deserters, Union 
scallawags, and such people, whose word 
should not have been taken by any decent 
man without corroboration ; yet Gen. J. G. 
Foster, U. S. A., commanding Depart- 
ment of the South, headquarters, Hilton 
Head, S. C., accepted the word of these 
creatures without question, and inflicted 
upon helpless prisoners of war cruelties 
that would have shamed Nero. 

There never were any Union prison- 
ers of war under fire of their own guns 
in any part of the South ; there were never 
any prisoners of war treated with harsh- 
ness or cruelty by order of the Confed- 
erate government authorities; but on the 
contrary all was done to lessen the burden 
of prison life that could be done by the 
Richmond government, and men of the 
highest rank in the United States Army 
attest this fact. The cruelty charged 
against the South is as false as the 
tongues that utter it, and it has been 
proven false time and time again. Even 
Andersonville, that much maligned prison, 



lO 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

has been proven to have been a very para- 
dise in comparison to Camp Chase, Rock 
Island, Elmira, and other Yankee prisons. 

The treatment meted to the six hun- 
dred Confederate officers, prisoners of 
war, confined on Morris Island, S. C, by 
the United States Secretary of War, is 
a blot upon the escutcheon of the United 
States that can never be blotted out nor 
removed. It was cowardly, it was in- 
human, and cruel. The names of the 
men responsible for this cruelty must be 
written — and they will be written — upon 
history's blacklists of cruel men. Stan- 
ton, Foster, and Halleck, are names that 
must always cast a shadow upon the days 
of 1861-65. 

There can be no excuse given for 
cruelty. There is no justification for it 
under the laws of God or man, and it 
has never been proven, yet, that the Con- 
federate authorities treated or allowed 
to be treated harshly or unkindly Union 
prisoners of war. The stories told of 
cruelties to Union soldiers in Confeder- 



II 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ate prisoners where the offsprings of the 
brains of perjured men, some of them 
never in a Confederate prison, nor never 
south beyond Washington city. The 
word of an ignorant nigger or a Con- 
federate deserter was given credence by 
the Washington authorities, when the tes- 
timony of, and letters of, such men as 
Generals Wessells, Scammon, and other 
honorable officers of the United States 
army, who were prisoners of war, was ig- 
nored. The records show most conclu- 
sively there were never any Union pris- 
oners of war under fire in Charleston 
city or at any other point in the Con- 
federacy; and, further, there never was 
any premeditated and planned cruelty per- 
petrated upon Union prisoners of war in 
Southern prisons like that inflicted upon 
Confederate prisoners of war in Northern 
military prisons. There were men, no 
doubt, both in the North and South, who 
took delight in treating prisoners of war 
cruelly. Such men were both moral and 
physical cowards, and acted upon their 



12 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

own responsibility; but I do say the au- 
thorities at Washington city did plan, or- 
der, and execute wantonly, cruelties upon 
Confederate prisoners of war that can 
not be justified under any pretext; and 
I claim that no proof can be produced 
that the Confederate government did at 
any time countenance the slightest cruelty 
to its prisoners of war. The same rations 
given to the Confederate soldier in the 
field were issued to the Yankee prisoners 
of war in Confederate prisons. The 
greatest cruelty inflicted upon the Union 
prisoners of war in the South was inflicted 
by Edwin M. Stanton, United States Sec- 
retary of War, and Gen. U. S. Grant, 
when they refused to exchange prisoners 
of war. The records show that General 
Grant, by order of Stanton, stopped ex- 
change and inflicted whatever hardships 
upon their own men they did suffer by 
this suspension of exchange; and it is a 
matter of recorded proof that both Presi- 
dent Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee, to 
alleviate the suffering of the prisoners of 



13 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

war in Southern prisons, offered, if the 
United States government would send 
transports, to turn over all prisoners held 
by the Confederate authorities, in hu- 
manity's name. 

Here are two extracts from Union 
witnesses to prove on which side cruelty 
shall be charged, and I do not hesitate to 
say these witnesses do most effectively 
offset Libby or Andersonville if the stories 
of the prisons be true. 

On February 9, 1862, Judge Ould, 
Confederate States Commissioner of Ex- 
change, wrote Colonel Ludlow, United 
States Exchange Commissioner : 

" I see from your own papers that some 
dozen of our men, captured at Arkansas Pass, 
were allowed to freeze to death in one night 
at Camp Douglas. I appeal to our common 
instincts against such atrocious inhumanity." 
(War Records, p. 257.) 

There is no denial of this charge to 
be found in the War Records. On May 
10, 1863, Dr. William H. Van Buren, of 
New York, on behalf of the United States 



14 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

*' Sanitary Commission," reported to the 
Secretary of War at Washington the con- 
dition of the hospitals of the prisoners of 
war at Camp Douglas, near Chicago, and 
Gratiot Street prison, St. Louis. In this 
report he incorporates the statements of 
Drs. Hun and Cogswell, of Albany, N. Y., 
who had been employed by the " Sanitary 
Commission " to inspect hospitals. And 
Dr. Van Buren commends these gentle- 
men as men of high character and emi- 
nent fitness for the work to which they 
had been assigned. It is from the state- 
ment of these northern gentlemen that I 
quote. They caption their report from 
Albany, April 5, 1863, and say, among 
other, things as follows : 

" In our experience, we have never wit- 
nessed so painful a spectacle as that presented 
by these wretched inmates ; without change 
of clothing, covered with vermin, they lie in 
cots, without mattresses, or with mattresses 
furnished by private charity, without sheets 
or bedding of any kind, except blankets, often 
in rags; in wards reeking with filth and foul 
air. The stench is most offensive. We care- 



15 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

fully avoid all exaggeration of statement, but 
we give some facts which speak for themselves. 
From January 27, 1863, when the prisoners 
(in number about 3,800) arrived at Camp 
Douglas, to February i8th, the day of our 
visit, 385 patients have been admitted to the 
hospitals, of whom 130 have died. This mor- 
tality of 33 per cent, does not express the 
whole truth, for of the 148 patients then re- 
maining in the hospital a large number must 
have since died. Besides this, 130 prisoners 
have died in barracks, not having been able to 
gain admission even to the miserable accom- 
modations of the hospital, and at the time 
of our visit 150 persons were sick in barracks 
waiting for room in hospital. Thus it will be 
seen that 260 out of the 3,800 prisoners had 
died in twenty-one days, a rate of mortality 
which, if continued, would secure their total 
extermination in about 320 days." 

Then they go on to describe the condi- 
tions at St. Louis, showing them to be 
worse than at Chicago, and after stating 
that the conditions of these prisons are 
'' discreditable to a Christian people," they 
add: 

" It surely is not the intention of our 
16 




CAPTAIN J. L.'HEMPSTKAD 
5th Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



government to place these prisoners in a posi- 
tion which will secure their extermination by- 
pestilence in less than a year." 

See also Report of United States 
Surgeon A. M. Clarke, Vol. VI, Series 

71. P- 37i>P- 113- 

Now let me ask this question : Why 

did not the representatives of this same 
" Sanitary Commission," when they were 
publishing their slanderous report of Sep- 
tember, 1864, as to the way Union prison- 
ers were treated in Southern prisons, 
which report they illustrated with skele- 
tons alleged to have come from Libby, 
Andersonville, and other prisons in the 
South, make at least mention of the con- 
dition of the things found by them in 
Camp Douglas and Gratiot Street prison 
hospitals? 

One word on violation of the ex- 
change cartel: On May 13, 1863, Judge 
Ould wrote Colonel Ludlow, calling his 
attention to the " large number of Con- 
federate officers captured long since and 
still held by the United States," threat- 



17 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ened retaliation if the unjust and harsh 
course then pursued by the Federals to- 
wards our officers was persevered in, and 
concluded as follows : 

" Nothing is now left as to those whom 
our protests have failed to release but to 
resort to retaliation. The Confederate gov- 
ernment is anxious to avoid a resort to that 
harsh measure. In its name I make a final 
appeal for that justice to our imprisoned of- 
ficers and men which your own agreements 
have declared to be their due." (War Rec- 
ords, p. 607.) 

Again on May 14, 1863, Judge Ould 
wrote, naming several of Mosby's men 
who had been carried to the Old Capitol 
prison. He then said : 

" They are retained under the allegation 
that they are bushwhackers and guerillas. 
Mosby's command is in the Confederate serv- 
ice, in every sense of the term. He is regularly 
commissioned, and his force is as strictly Con- 
federate as any in our army. Why is this 
done? This day I have cleaned every prison 
in my control as far as I know. If there is 
any detention anywhere, let me know and I 

18 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

will rectify it. I am compelled to complain 
of this thing in almost every communication. 
You will not deem me passionate when I assure 
you it will not be endured any longer. If these 
men are not delivered, a stern retaliation will 
be made immediately." (Id., p. 632.) 

This being the condition of things, 
on May 25, 1863, the following order was 
issued by the Federals : 

War Department^ Washington^ D. C, 
May 25, 1863. 
General Schofield: 

No Confederate officer will be paroled 
or exchanged till further orders. They will be 
kept in close confinement, and be strongly 
guarded. Those already paroled will be con- 
fined. 

H. W. Halleck^ 

General-in-Chief. 

Why was the cartel suspended? 
Surely not by request of the Confederate 
authorities. Who was responsible for 
this inhuman work that inflicted so much 
suffering upon the Union prisoners of 
war in the hands of the South that could 
not care for them nor feed them? 



19 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

The question is asked in all honesty 
because this suspension of the cartel by 
the United States government was the 
cause of the suffering of the Union pris- 
oners of war in the South. 

Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of 
War, and Gen. H. W. Halleck are respon- 
sible for the suffering of Union prison- 
ers of war in the South, and not President 
Davis nor the Confederate government. 
Mr. Charles A. Dana, the Assistant Fed- 
eral Secretary of War, in an editorial in 
his paper, the New York ** Sun," said in 
commenting on a letter President Davis 
wrote to Mr. James Lyons in reply to 
some strictures Mr. Blaine had made upon 
the question of prisoners of war: 

"This letter shows clearly, we think, 
that the Confederate authorities, and especial- 
ly Mr. Davis, ought not to be held responsible 
for the terrible privations, sufferings and in- 
juries which our men had to endure while 
they were kept in Confederate military pris- 
ons. The fact is unquestionable, that while 
the Confederates desired to exchange prison- 
ers, to send our men home, and to get back 



20 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

their own, General Grant steadily and stren- 
uously resisted such an exchange. * * * 

" * It is hard on our men held in Southern 
prisons,' said Grant, in an official communi- 
cation, ' not to exchange them ; but it is hu- 
mane to those left in the ranks to fight our 
battles. If we commence a system of ex- 
changes which liberates all prisoners taken, we 
will have to fight on until the whole South is 
exterminated. If we hold those caught they 
are no more than dead men.' * * * 

" This evidence [says Dana] must be 
taken as conclusive. It proves that it was 
not the Confederate authorities who insisted 
on keeping our prisoners in distress, want, and 
disease, hut the commander of our own 
armies. * * * Moreover [says he] there is no 
evidence whatever, that it was practicable for 
the Confederate authorities to feed our pris- 
oners any better than they were fed, or to 
give them any better care and attention than 
they received. The food was insufficient, the 
care and attention were insufficient, no doubt, 
and yet the condition of our prisoners was not 
worse than that of the Confederate soldiers in 
the field, except in so far as the condition of 
those in prison must of necessity be worse 
than that of men who are free and active out- 
side." 



31 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

This is the statement of the Federal 
Assistant Secretary of War during the 
war, and he knew whereof he wrote., 
He was the man who ordered General 
Miles to put shackles on President Davis, 
and, as a fact, did hate Mr. Davis and all 
things Southern. Yet he did tell the 
truth, and is most conclusive, and puts the 
blame for the hardships of the Union sol- 
diers in Southern prisons where it be- 
longs, and clearly points out the guilty 
party. 

When we add to this the pregnant 
fact that the report of the Federal Secre- 
tary of War, Mr. Stanton, dated July 
19, 1866, shows that of the Federal pris- 
oners of war confined in the military 
prisons of the South, only 22,576 died, 
whilst of Confederate prisoners of war 
confined in Northern prisons, 26,436 died ; 
the report of the Federal Surgeon-general 
Barnes, published after the war, showing 
that the whole number of Federal prison- 
ers captured and held in the South during 
the war was 270,000, while the whole 



22 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

number of Confederate prisoners confined 
in Northern prisons was 220,000 (from 
this report we see that while the South 
held 50,000 more prisoners of war than 
the North, the deaths in the South were 
four thousand less. The rate of deaths 
in Southern prisons was eight in each 100 
men. The rate in the Northern prisons 
of Confederates was twelve in each 100.), 
I think it is useless to go further into 
discussion of this matter, but leave our 
case to the bar of impartial history. 

I hesitated before going into this 
history of the Immortal Six Hundred, 
but frequent requests of comrades of the 
six hundred who were true unto the end 
of the ordeal induced me to undertake the 
task and do the best I could in com- 
pliance with their request. I can only 
tell the story from a personal experience. 

There were many incidents that took 
place that did not come under my obser- 
vation, and not being able at this late 
date to obtain them, much must go un- 
told. I shall tell the story without malice 



23 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

or bitterness against those men respon- 
sible for our bad treatment. I have no 
bitterness against the men who wore the 
blue. The story is part of the unwritten 
history of the Confederate States; it is 
the story of the men who could surrender 
life, but not principle to save their lives. 
These men were the men who made the 
fame of the Confederate soldier, and gave 
the world an example of courage equal to 
that of Sparta or Rome. 

There shall be no exaggeration of 
facts. God knows the facts are ghastly 
enough without adding to them. I do not 
blame all men who wore the blue for our 
bad treatment. While prisoners of war 
we came in contact with some brave, hon- 
orable men, who appreciated our helpless 
condition ; and they often showed us their 
humanity while in their custody. The 
bombproof fellows who were cruel to 
prisoners can have no part in the meetings 
of the brave men of to-day, who come 
together clasping hands over the bloody 
past — forgetting its bitterness. 



24 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

" The man who hates knows no law but 
selfishness. They hate the precepts of the 
Master. They ignore His command, * love thy 
neighbor'. " 

There is no part of the conflict of 
1861-65 that has been so imperfectly told, 
and no subject of more importance than 
the history of the military prisons North 
and South. The story must be truthfully 
told by the historian. If it is not truth- 
fully told it can not and should not have 
place in history. Nothing is history if it 
is not absolutely correct. If future gene- 
rations are to sit as judges of the past we 
must give them data of absolute truth 
upon which they can base a verdict. If 
we in the least deviate from this line judg- 
ment must be against us. 

In telling the story of the Six Hun- 
dred Immortals, — the Confederate offi- 
cers, prisoners of war, — who were taken 
from Fort Delaware prison in August, 
1864, by order of Edwin M. Stanton, 
Federal Secretary of War, and confined 
in a stockade on Morris Island, S. C, un- 



25 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

der fire of the Confederate batteries shell- 
ing that point, we will tell it truthfully, 
without the least exaggeration, that those 
who read may make honest judgment 
and render fair verdict. It's not intended 
that this work shall be a general history 
of military prisons. It is only a history 
of the Six Hundred Immortals that will 
refute, so far as it can, the repeated and 
almost constant charge made by the pulpit 
and press of the North that the Confed- 
erate authorities were cruel and inhuman 
to their prisoners of war. These charges 
of cruelty made by the North are worthy 
the attention of the South's historians; 
and now that the passions of the war have, 
to a great degree, cooled, the facts can be 
presented and the responsibility fixed, so 
that when the Confederate soldier of the 
war of 1861-65 has passed over the picket 
line of life into the unknown land, and the 
honest verdict of history is rendered, our 
good names and records as soldiers will 
not be blackened by the blot of cruelty, 
nor our peerless leaders be painted by the 

26 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

tongue of slander with cruelty to prison- 
ers of war. 

I will corroborate my story of the 
Immortal Six Hundred by the official 
records, so far as the United States gov- 
ernment has printed the record under the 
supervision of the War Department. 

As stated before this history is of the 
Six Hundred Immortals only. What led 
up to this cruel retaliation upon the six 
hundred prisoners of war by the United 
States government is not very clear. 
From the official records we can only 
glean the fact that much stock was taken 
in the word and stories told by deserters, 
runaway niggers, and scallawags general- 
ly, without the least attempt by the 
United States officials to verify the truth 
of their statements. Below is the official 
correspondence. 



27 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Headquarters Department South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida. 
Charleston, S. C, June 13, 1864. 
Ma J. -Gen. John G. Foster, 

Commanding U. S. Forces, Coast of 
South Carolina. 
General : 

Five general officers and forty-five field 
officers of the United States Army, all of them 
prisoners of war, have been sent to this city 
for safe keeping. They have been turned over 
to Brigadier-General Ripley, commanding 
First Military District of this department, who 
will see that they are provided with commo- 
dious quarters in a part of the city occupied 
by non-combatants, the majority of whom are 
women and children. It is proper, however, 
that I should inform you that it is part of the 
city which has been for many months exposed 
day and night to the fire of your guns. 
Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

Sam Jones, 
Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, Part 2, p. 132.) 

In this letter Gen. Sam Jones says 
most clearly where the Union prisoners 
of war are quartered in Charleston city: 
" In that section of the city where the 

28 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

non-combatants — women and children 
— are housed." On June i6, 1864, Maj.- 
Gen. J. G. Foster repHed to General 
Jones's letter as follows : 

Headquarters Department of the South^ 

Hilton Head, S. C, June 16, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. Samuel Jones^ 

Commanding Confederate Forces, De- 
partment South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida. 
General : 

I have to acknowledge the receipt this 
day of your communication of the 13th instant, 
informing me that five generals and forty-five 
field officers of the United States Army — pris- 
oners of war — have been sent to Charleston 
for safe keeping; that they have been turned 
over by you to Brigadier-General Ripley with 
instructions to see that they are provided with 
quarters in a part of the city occupied by non- 
combatants, the majority of which latter, you 
state, are women and children. You add that 
you deem it proper to inform me that it is a 
part of the city which has been for many 
months exposed to the fire of our guns. 

Many months since Major-General Gill- 
more, U. S. A., notified General Beaureguard, 
then commanding at Charleston, that the city 



29 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

would be bombarded. This notice was given 
that non-combatants might be removed and 
thus women and children be spared from 
harm. General Beaureguard, in a communi- 
cation to General Gillmore, dated August 22, 
1863, informed him that the non-combatant 
population of Charleston would be removed 
with all possible celerity. That women and 
children have been since retained by you in 
a part of the city which has been for many 
months exposed to fire is a matter decided by 
your own sense of humanity. I must, how- 
ever, protest against your action in thus plac- 
ing defenseless prisoners of war in a position 
exposed to constant bombardment. It is an 
indefensible act of cruelty, and can be designed 
only to prevent the continuance of our fire 
upon Charleston. That city is a depot of mili- 
tary supplies. It contains not merely arsenals 
but also foundries and factories for the manu- 
facture of munitions of war. In its shipyards 
several ironclads have already been completed, 
while others are still upon the stocks in course 
of construction. Its wharves and banks of the 
rivers on both sides of the city are lined with 
batteries. To destroy these means of con- 
tinuing the war is, therefore, our object of 
duty. You seek to defeat this effort, not by 
means known to honorable warfare, but by 



30 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

placing unarmed and helpless prisoners under 
our fire. 

I have forwarded your communication to 
the President, with the request that he will 
place in my custody an equal number of pris- 
oners of like grades, to be kept by mc in posi- 
tions exposed to the fire of your guns so long 
as you continue the course stated in your com- 
munication. 

I have the honor to be 
Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

J. G. Foster, 
Ma j .-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv. Part 2, pp. 134-135) 

General Foster, after reply to Gen. 
Sam Jones's letter, sent to Washington 
the following letter by hand of his aide- 
de-camp, Maj. E. W. Strong, which was 
wired from Fortress Monroe to Wash- 
ington, D. C. : 

Fortress Monroe^ Va., 

11.30 p. m., June 19, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. H. W. Halleck, 

Washington, D. C. 
I am directed by Major-General Foster 
to forward to you the following dispatch. 



31 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Headquarters South Carolina, 

via Fortress Monroe, Va. 
Maj.-Gen. Halleck, 

Washington, D. C. 
I have the honor to report that I have 
to-day received from Maj.-Gen. Sam Jones, 
commanding the Rebel forces in the depart- 
ment, a letter stating that five general officers 
and forty-five field officers of the United States 
Army — prisoners of war — had been placed 
in Charleston city, to be retained there under 
fire. Against this wicked act I have protested. 
In meantime the fire on the city is continued. 
I respectfully ask that an equal number of 
Rebel officers of equal rank may be sent to 
me in order that I may place them under the 
enemy's fire as long as our officers are ex- 
posed in Charleston. I send Maj. E. W. 
Strong, in steamer " Mary A. Boardman," to 
Fortress Monroe to await your answer and, 
if my request is granted, to bring the prison- 
ers. Copies of my correspondence will be 
mailed to you as soon as Major Strong arrives 
at Fortress Monroe. 

J. G. Foster, 

Major-General. 
E. N. Strong, 
Major, and aide-de-camp. 



32 




LIEUTKNANT JOHN F. LYTTON 
5th Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

General Foster did not state all the 
facts in his telegram to Washington city, 
nor did he think proper to await the due 
course of mail, but wired General Halleck 
a garbled and false statement of the facts 
in the case. (See War Records, Vol. 
XXXV, Part 2, p. 141.) 

On June 27, 1864, the following let- 
ter was sent by General Halleck to Gen- 
eral Foster, which shows clearly how 
anxious these worthies were to begin their 
cruelty upon helpless human beings — 
prisoners of war. 

Washington, D. C, June 27, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster^ 

Department of the South. 
General : 

Your letter of i6th instant, transmitting 
the correspondence between yourself and the 
commanding general of the Rebel forces at 
Charleston in regard to confining our officers 
— prisoners of war — in part of that city exposed 
to the fire of our batteries is just received. 
The Secretary of War has directed an equal 
number of Rebel generals and field officers to 
be sent to you, by Major Strong, to he treated 



zz 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

in precisely the same manner as the enemy 
treats ours; that is, to be placed in a position 
where they will be most exposed to the fire 
of the Rebels. In whatever position they may 
be placed, whether in field or in batteries or 
vessels, you will take every proper precaution 
to prevent their escape or recapture, putting 
them in irons if necessary for that purpose. 
The Secretary of War directs on that point 
you will exercise great vigilance, and that the 
Rebel officers will he treated with same 
severity that they treat ours. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
H. W. Halleck, 
Maj.-Gen., Chief of Staff. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, Part 2, p. 143.) 

Had Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., 
communicated by flag of truce, which he 
could have done, with his officers, the 
prisoners of war, in Charleston, he would 
have been saved the humiliation of having 
his letter and its statements refuted over 
the signatures, in a joint letter, of his own 
prisoners of war confined in Charleston 
city. They say in their letter they are not 
under fire, in no danger whatever, and are 



34 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

treated humanely, courteously by the Con- 
federate authorities from the major-gen- 
eral down to the sentinels on guard. 

On June 2:^, 1864, Major Strong was 
sent the following order by Colonel Hoff- 
man, Commissary of Prisoners of War, 
U. S. A. : 

Office of the Commissary of Prisoners, 

Washington, D. C, June 23, 1864. 
Maj. E. N. Strong, A. D. C, 

Washington, D. C. 
Major: 

The Rebel prisoners of war, officers 
whom you are to receive to conduct to Major- 
General Foster at Hilton Head, S. C, are 
at Fort Delaware, and Brigadier-General 
Schoepf, the commanding officer at that post, 
has been instructed to deliver them to you. 
You will therefore proceed without delay, in 
the steamer provided for the purpose by the 
Quartermaster-General's Department, to Fort 
Delaware, and having received the generals 
and field officers referred to, you will return 
to Hilton Head, and deliver them to Major- 
General Foster, commanding Department of 
the South. The guard detailed to accompany 
you from Fort Delaware is expected to return 



35 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

from Hilton Head with as little delay as pos- 
sible. 

W. Hoffman^ 
Colonel 3d Infantry, 
Commissary-General Prisoners. 

After receipt of this order Major 
Strong went to Fort Delaware and the 
following Confederate officers were 
turned over to him to be, and were, taken 
to Hilton Head : 

Maj.-Gen. Edward Johnson, C. S. A. 
Maj.-Gen. Franklin Gardner, C. S. A. 
Brig.-Gen. J. J. Archer, C. S. A. 
Brig.-Gen. George H. Steuart, C. S. A. 
Brig.-Gen. M. Jeff. Thompson, C. S. A. 
Col. R. Welby Carter, ist Va. Cav.' 
Col. N. Cobb, 44th Inft. 
Col. Basil W. Duke, Kentucky. 
Col. M. J. Ferguson, i6th Va. 
Col. J. M. Hanks, Kentucky. 
Col. Richard C. Morgan, Kentucky. 
Col. James A. Pell, Kentucky. 
Col. W. H. Peebles, Georgia. 
Col. A. S. Vandeventer, 50th Va. 
Col. W. W. Ward, Tennessee. 
Col. William M. Barbour, N. C. 

^For some reason. Colonel Carter did not go. 

36 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Col. John N. Brown, S. C. 
Col. J. A. Jaquess, C. S. A. 
Col. B. E. Caudill, Kentucky. 
Col. W. H. Forney, Alabama. 
Lieut.-Col. James F. Brewer, Tennessee. 
Lieut.-Col. F. H. Daugherty, Tennessee. 
Lieut.-Col. P. E. Devant, Georgia. 
Lieut.-Col. J. P. Fitzgerald, 23d Va. 
Lieut.-Col. C. L. Haynes, 27th Va. 
Lieut.-Col. O. A. Patton, Kentucky. 
Lieut.-Col. William M. Parsley, N. C. 
Lieut.-Col. A. L. Swingley, Tennessee. 
Lieut.-Col. Joseph Tucker, Tennessee. 
Lieut.-Col. D. H. L. Martz, loth Va. 
Lieut.-Col. A. Dupree, C. S. A. 
Lieut.-Col. Thomas C. Jackson, C. S. A. 
Lieut.-Col. M. J. Smith, C. S. A. 
Maj. D. W. Anderson, 44th Va. 
Lieut.-Col. J. W. Caldwell, Kentucky. 
Lieut.-Col. J. T. Carson, Georgia. 
Lieut.-Col. W. T. Ennett, N. C. 
Lieut.-Col. J. E. Groce, Mississippi. 
Lieut-Col. H. A. Highley, C. S. A. 
Lieut.-Col. E. M. Henry, C. S. A. 
Lieut.-Col. E. A. Nash, Georgia. 
Lieut.-Col. L. J. Perkins, 50th Va. 
Lieut.-Col. George H. Smith, Tennessee. 
Lieut.-Col. E. J. Sanders, Mississippi. 
Lieut.-Col. T. Steele, Kentucky. 



37 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Lieut.-Col. Thomas B. Webber, Kentucky 
Lieut.-Col. J. M. Wilson, Louisiana. 
Lieut.-Col. W. H. Manning, Louisiana. 
Lieut.-Col. T. E. Upshaw, 13th Va. 
Lieut.-Col. F. F. Warley, S. C. 
Lieut.-Col. W. L. Davidson, N. C. 

These officers left Fort Delaware in June, 
1864, in charge of Major Strong, U. S. 
A., and in due course were delivered to 
Major-General Foster, commanding Uni- 
ted States forces at Hilton Head, S. C. 
After the arrival of these prisoners cor- 
respondence took place between Maj.- 
Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., and Gen. 
Sam Jones, C. S. A., commanding Con- 
federate forces, Charleston, S. C, which 
will be found in Vol. XXXV, War Rec- 
ords. 

It was General Foster's intention to 
place these Confederate officers — prison- 
ers of war — under fire on Morris Island. 
But he found, upon investigation and 
from correspondence, that his hasty action 
upon General Jones's letter had gotten 
him a very large elephant on his hands, 

_ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

which he could not control; and he also 
had the testimony in letters from the 
Union prisoners of war confined in 
Charleston city, that they were not under 
fire at all, and all Foster had to bolster 
up his infamous scheme and slander was 
the testimony of the runaway niggers and 
Confederate deserters. Here is the let- 
ter of protest against Foster's action: 

Charleston, S. C, July i, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster, 

Commanding Department South, 
Hilton Head, S. C 
General : 

The journals of this morning inform 
us, for the first time, that five general officers 
of the Confederate service have arrived at 
Hilton Head, with a view to their being sub- 
jected to the same treatment that we are re- 
ceiving here. We think it just to ask for 
these officers every kindness and courtesy that 
you can extend to them in acknowledgement 
of the fact that we, at this time, are as pleas- 
antly and comfortably situated as is possible 
for prisoners of war, receiving from the Con- 
federate authorities every privilege that we 



39 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

could desire or expect, nor are we unneces- 
sarily exposed to fire. 
Respectfully, General, your obedient servants, 

H. W. Wessells^ 

T. Seymour, 

E. P. SCAMMON, 

C. A. Heckman, 
Alexander Shaler, 
Brig.-Gens. U. S. Vols. 

Prisoners of War. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 163.) 

Charleston, S. C, July i, 1864. 
Brig.-Gen. L. Thomas, 

Adjt.-Gen. U. S. A., Washington, D. C. 
(Through Ma j. -Gen. J. G. Foster, 
commanding Department of the 
South, Hilton Head, S. C.) 
General : 

We desire respectfully to represent 
through you to our authorities our firm belief 
that a prompt exchange of prisoners of war 
in the hands of the Southern Confederacy (if 
exchanges are to be made) is called for by 
every consideration of humanity. There are 
many thousands confined at southern points of 
the Confederacy in a climate to which they 
are unaccustomed, deprived of much of the 
food, clothing, and shelter they have habitually 



40 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

received, and it is not surprising that from 
these and other causes that need not be enum- 
erated here much suffering, sickness, and death 
should ensue. In this matter the statements 
of our own officers are confirmed by the South- 
ern journals. And while we cheerfully submit 
to any policy that may be decided upon by our 
government, we would urge that the great 
evils that must result from any delay that is 
not desired should be obviated by the designa- 
tion of some point in this vicinity at which 
exchange might be made, a course, we are 
induced to believe, that would be acceded to 
by the Confederate authorities. 

And we are, General, very respectfully 
your obedient servants, 

H. W. Wessells, 

T. Seymour^ 

E. P. SCAMMON^ 

C. A. Heckman^ 
Alexander Shaler, 
Brig.-Gens. U. S. Vols., 
Prisoners of War. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 162.) 



41 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Headquarters Department of South Caro- 
lina^ Georgia, and Florida. 

Charleston, S. C, July i, 1864. 

Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster, 

Commanding Department of South 
Hilton Head. 
General : 

I send with this a letter addressed by 
five general officers of the United States Army, 
now prisoners of war in this city, to Brig.- 
Gen. L. Thomas, Adjutant-General United 
States Army, recommending and asking an 
exchange of prisoners of war. I fully concur 
in opinion with the officers who have signed 
the letter that there should be an exchange 
of prisoners of war and, although I am not 
instructed by my government to enter into 
negotiations for that purpose, I have no doubt 
it is willing and desirous now, as it has ever 
been, to exchange prisoners of war with your 
government on just and honorable plans. Our 
difficulty in the way of carrying out the cartel 
of exchange agreed upon between the two 
governments would not exist, that I am aware 
of, if the exchange was conducted between you 
and myself. If, therefore, you think proper to 
communicate on the subject with your gov- 
ernment I will, without delay, communicate 
with mine, and it may be that we can enter 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

into an agreement, subject to approval of our 
respective governments, by which the pris- 
oners of v;^ar now languishing in confinement 
may be released. I should be glad to aid in 
so humane work, and, to the end that there 
may be no unnecessary delay on my part, I 
have directed an officer of my staff, Maj. John 
F. Lay, Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-Gen- 
eral, charged with the delivery of this, to 
wait a reasonable time in vicinity of Port 
Royal Ferry for your answer. He is fully 
informed of my views on this subject, and, if 
you desire it, will confer with you or any of- 
ficer you may designate. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
Sam Jones, 
Maj .-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, pp. 161-162.) 

Headquarters Department of the South^ 

July 4, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. Samuel Jones, 

Commanding Confederate Forces, South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 
Charleston, S. C. 
I have received your letter of the ist 
inst. covering a letter from the five general 
officers of the United States Army now pris- 
oners of war in Charleston to Brig.-Gen. L. 



43 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Thomas, Adjutant-General United States 
Army. 

I fully reciprocate your desire for an ex- 
change of prisoners of war, but before any 
steps can be taken to effect it it will be neces- 
sary for you to withdraw from exposure to 
our fire these officers now confined in Charles- 
ton. I have not yet placed your prisoners in 
a similar position of exposure. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
J. G. Foster, 
Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 164.) 

Headquarters Department of the South^ 

July 4, 1864. 
Brig.-Gens. T. Seymour, H. W. Wessells, C. 

A. Heckman, E. p. Scammon, and 

Alexander Shaler. 
My Dear Friends: 

I have received your letter of ist inst. 
and will observe your wishes in the treatment 
of the prisoners now placed in my hands. We 
all regret very much the circumstances of your 
being placed under our fire in Charleston, and 
every one feels justly indignant at this bar- 
barous treatment of prisoners of war. I will 
endeavor to have your wants supplied so far 
as possible, and have requested the Sanitary 
Commission to forward what articles they 



44 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

have on hand suited to your necessities. I 
believe your exchange might be effected rank 
for rank provided, as a first step, General 
Jones should relieve you from your position 
of exposure to fire. 

Very respectfully and truly yours, 
J. G. Foster, 
Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 164.) 
Headquarters Department South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, and Florida. 

Charleston, S. C, July 13, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster, 

Commanding United States Forces, 
Hilton Head, S. C. 
General : 

Your letter of 4th date in reply to mine 
of 1st inst. has been received. I am pleased 
to know that you reciprocate my desire for 
an exchange of prisoners, but regret that you 
should require as a condition precedent to any 
negotiations for this end that I should remove 
from their present location the United States 
prisoners of war now in this city. Such a 
course on my part would be implied admission 
that those officers are unduly exposed and 
treated with unnecessary rigor, which they 
themselves assure you in their letter of ist 
inst. is not the case. I regard the exchange of 

45 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

prisoners as demanded alike by rules of civ- 
ilized warfare and the dictates of common hu- 
manity; and to require a change of location 
which you have every reason to know the 
prisoners do not themselves desire is to throw 
an unnecessary obstacle in the way of accom- 
plishing this end, and thus retain prisoners of 
war in irksome confinement. The change I 
most prefer would be to send them to your 
headquarters and this may be done, unless de- 
feated by obstacles interposed by yourself or 
your government. 

I was notified of your request to send a 
staff officer to meet one of yours at Port Royal 
at 2 p. m. to-day, too late to comply therewith. 
I have, however, directed the officer of your 
staff to be informed that I would send an 
officer to meet him at 4 p. m. to-morrow and 
have accordingly directed Maj. J. F. Lay, As- 
sistant Adjutant and Inspector-General, to 
take charge of this letter and deliver it at 
Port Royal Ferry. 

I repeat that he is fully advised of my 
views, and, should you desire it, will confer 
with you or any officer of your staff whom you 
may designate. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
Sam Jones, Maj .-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, pp. 174-175.) 

46 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

All this correspondence was for- 
warded by General Foster to Washing- 
ton, and receipt thereof acknowledged by 
General Halleck. 

Headquarters Department South Caro- 
lina^ Georgia^ and Florida, 

Charleston, S. C, July 13, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster, 

Commanding United States Forces, 
Hilton Head, S. C. 
General : 

I have received your letter of the ist 
inst. Mine of the 13th and 22d ult. indicate, 
with all necessary precision, the location of 
the United States officers who are prisoners 
of war in this city. I can not well be more 
minute without pointing out the very houses 
in which they are confined, and for reasons 
very easily understood I am sure that this 
will not be expected. If statements in my let- 
ter of the 22d ult. are insufficient the letter 
of the five general officers, dated ist inst., in 
which they assure you they " are as pleasantly 
and comfortably situated as is possible for 
prisoners of war, receiving from the Confed- 
erate authorities every privilege that we 
(they) could desire or expect, nor are we 
(they) unnecessarily exposed to fire " gives 



47 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

you all the information in regard to their treat- 
ment that you can reasonably desire. In con- 
clusion let me add that I presume from copy 
of your confidential order of 29th ult. that you 
were commanding in person the troops operat- 
ing against the city, and, as you had particu- 
larly requested me to communicate with you 
only by way of Port Royal Ferry, I felt bound 
to delay my reply until I was assured it would 
promptly reach you by route you were pleased 
to indicate. 

Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
Sam Jones^ 
Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 

After this correspondence came the 
following letter, an exchange was made 
of these officers, and they were not placed 
under fire. 

Headquarters Department South^ 
Hilton Head, S. C, July 29, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. Sam Jones, 

Commanding Confederate Forces, 

South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 
General : 

I have the honor to inform you that the 
Secretary of War has authorized me to ex- 
change any prisoners of war in my hands 

4S 




CAPTAIN BRUCE GIBSON 
6th Virginia Cavalry 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

rank for rank or their equivalent, such ex- 
change being a special one. In accordance with 
the above I send Major Anderson to make 
arrangements as to time and place for ex- 
change. 
I have the honor to be very respectfully your 
obedient servant, 

J. G. Foster^ 
Major-General. 

General Foster sent the following 
note to the Union generals — prisoners 
of war — in Charleston city : 

Headquarters Department South^ 
Hilton Head, S. C, July 29, 1864. 
General Wessels^ etc.^ etc. 

My Dear General: — I have just received 
authority to exchange the prisoners in my 
hands rank for rank or their equivalent, ac- 
cording to cartel. I send aide-de-camp to 
make arrangements for exchange. 
Yours truly, 

J. G. Foster. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, Part 2, p. 199.) 

On August 4, 1864, subsequent to the 
exchange of the general and field officers, 
General Foster wrote to General Halleck, 
chief of staff, U. S. A., Washington, 



49 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

D. C, that he (Foster) had obtained in- 
formation from Rebel deserters and run- 
away niggers, and escaped Union prison- 
ers of war, that the Confederate authori- 
ties were anxious for exchange of prison- 
ers of war, and that he (General Foster) 
could manage the matter and arrange to 
have the exchange take place in Charles- 
ton Harbor. He also tells Halleck, in 
this letter, that there are six hundred 
Union officers — prisoners of war — 
brought from Macon, Ga., to Charleston 
to induce the United States authorities to 
make exchange of prisoners of war; but 
he (Foster) will notify Gen. Sam Jones 
at Charleston, that no more exchange of 
prisoners will be made in Charleston Har- 
bor. Both Gen. J. G. Foster and Secre- 
tary of War Stanton knew that Federal 
prisoners of war were dying at the rate of 
seventy per day because the Confederate 
authorities can not furnish them proper 
medicine. Yet the United States govern- 
ment will not exchange nor relieve their 
own prisoners. Here is proof positive — 



50 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

official admission — by the highest offi- 
cials of the United States that they will 
not exchange prisoners of war, although 
the Confederate government is willing to 
make exchange, or give up all the sick 
and wounded Federal prisoners in their 
hands if the United States will send 
transports and take them away. 

General Grant said it was much 
cheaper to feed Rebel prisoners than fight 
them, and the Washington authorities 
acted upon the suggestion and broke off 
the exchange of prisoners of war. Mr. 
Stanton believed it was cheaper to starve 
Rebel prisoners of war than put guns in 
their hands. There was nothing in the 
way to prevent the exchange of prisoners 
of war except the inhumanity of Edwin 
M. Stanton, Federal Secretary of War. 
He did not care for the Union prisoners 
of war. He hated the Confederate pris- 
oners with a deadly hate. ( See War Rec- 
ords, Vol. XXXV, p. 213.) 

After this correspondence came the 
call, by Gen. J. G. Foster, for six hundred 



51 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Confederate officers — prisoners of war — 
to be tortured on Morris Island, S. C, un- 
der fire of their own guns, and be starved 
upon rotten corn meal and pickle at Hil- 
ton Head, S. C, and at Fort Pulaski, 
Ga., by order of the United States gov- 
ernment. It can not be proven that 
the Confederate authorities at any time 
placed Federal prisoners of war under 
fire or treated them inhumanely; nor can 
General Foster's friends nor Edwin M. 
Stanton's friends give the least excuse for 
the brutality of those men. Why the ex- 
change of prisoners was stopped is given 
in plain terms over Gen. U. S. Grant's 
signature : 

City Point, Va., August 27, 1864, 5 p. m. 
Secretary of War^ 

Washington : 
Please inform Maj.-Gen. J. G. Foster 
that in no circumstances will he be allowed to 
make exchange of prisoners of war. Ex- 
changes simply re-enforce the enemy at once, 
whilst we do not get the benefit of those re- 
ceived for two or three months and lose the 
majority entirely. I telegraph this from just 



52 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

hearing 500 or 600 more prisoners had been 
sent to Major-General Foster. 

U. S. Grant, 
Lieutenant-General. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 254.) 

Comment upon this dispatch is unneces- 
sary. General Grant preferred to feed 
Rebels to fighting them, even if his own 
men must suffer in Confederate prisons 
where there was not food to give them. 
Gen. J. G. Foster, on June 2y, 1864, 
wrote this letter to General Halleck, 
which shows he had no proofs that Union 
prisoners of war were under fire in 
Charleston city: 

Headquarters Department of the South, 

Hilton Head, S. C, June 27, 1864. 
Maj.-Gen. H. W. Halleck, 

Chief of Staff, Armies United States, 
Washington, D. C. 
General : 

I have received your letter of the 21st 
and will endeavor to carry out your instruc- 
tions and those of the Secretary of War to 
the very letter. I shall first endeavor to as- 
certain from Gen. Samuel Jones the degree of 



53 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

exposure, the kind and amount of rations, the 
general comforts, as beds, blankets, etc., etc., 
which are given to our prisoners, and then 
give the same to the Rebel prisoners. Every 
precaution v^ill be taken to prevent escape or 
recapture. 

I have the honor to be very respectfully 
Your obedient servant, 

J. G. Foster, 
Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 150.) 

On July 2ist General Foster received re- 
ply from his own prisoners in Charleston, 
telling exactly how kind they were treated. 
(See General Scammon, et al, letter.) 



54 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



CHAPTER TWO. 

Fort Delaware. Rumors of exchange. Order 
to get ready for exchange. Saying good- 
bye. Packing us on steamship " Crescent 
City." 

F->ORT DELAWARE is built upon 
Pea Patch Island, in the Dela- 
ware River, midway of the 
stream between the New Jersey and Dela- 
ware shores. The structure is of brick, 
strong and durable. In the years 1861-65 
the United States government utilized this 
Fort and Island as a military prison for 
the confinement of its prisoners of war. 
On the grounds of the island were built 
large wooden barracks separated into 
compartments, one of which was occupied 
by the Confederate officers — prisoners 
of war — the other by the enlisted men 
of the Confederacy who were held as 
prisoners. In the officers' side of this huge 
barracks, in the month of August, 1864, 
there were confined about 1,500 Confed- 
erate officers, captured in different battles 



55 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

in the South. This prison was fairly well 
conducted as to quarters, but most mis- 
erably as to rations. There were two 
large mess halls in which the prisoners 
were fed twice each day. The ration for 
breakfast was a chunk of bread cut wedge 
shape, a small portion of molasses as 
black as it was bitter, with a tin cup of 
very black coffee without sugar. The 
dinner menu card was a tin of soup (so 
called), a small piece of fat meat or beef, 
with slice of bread. For supper, wind. 
General Schoepf, U. S. V., commandant 
of the post, was a German, in his way a 
very good sort of an old fellow who no 
doubt did all he dare do, if report is cor- 
rect, to alleviate the condition of Confed- 
erate prisoners of war. But he had about 
him some very mean, low men and prison 
officials. It was the general report 
amongst the prisoners of war that Gen- 
eral Schoepf's wife was a Virginia lady 
who was in sympathy with her State and 
people. For this reason the General was 
not given a command in the field, but as- 

56 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

signed to command of Fort Delaware 
prison that he might be kept under sur- 
veillance from Washington city. Report 
also said Capt. A. A. Ahl, his A. A. Gen- 
eral, was forced upon him as a spy, and 
was not at all agreeable to the General. 
Ahl was the monitor placed over him by 
Secretary of War Stanton. If this re- 
port be true or false I do not know; but 
this I do know, that Captain Ahl did 
most intensely hate Confederate prison- 
ers of war, and it is susceptible of proof 
that all the drastic orders issued for the 
government of Fort Delaware military 
prison were the conceptions and work of 
this fellow Ahl, and their enforcement 
compelled by his diction and domination 
over General Schoepf. While Fort Del- 
aware prison was a hell upon earth for 
both officers and men, — Confederate pris- 
oners of war — it is said by prisoners of 
war confined in other Northern prisons to 
be the best of the lot. This fact can not 
be denied: where large numbers of men 
are confined and huddled together in a 



57 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

small space, deprived of liberty of roam- 
ing about, poorly fed, and unprotected 
from the elements, there must be neces- 
sarily much suffering and always much 
complaint, even if those ih authority and 
control are disposed to be humane in their 
treatment of those in their custody. 

The assistant provost-marshal in 
charge of the officers' prison at Fort Del- 
aware was a dutchman. Lieutenant 
Woolf, a graduate from the slums of 
Philadelphia city, a coarse, brutal crea- 
ture, with all the mean, cowardly, and 
cruel instincts of the beast from which 
his name was taken; a fellow without 
culture, refinement, or gentility, who took 
much delight in insulting the Confeder- 
ate officers that the misfortunes of war 
had made prisoners. It might be charity 
to place this fellow's meanness to the 
credit of his profound ignorance and 
slum breeding. His assistants were as 
miserable fellows as himself. Aided by 
these assistants and some miserable 
scoundrels — Confederate soldiers who 



58 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

deserted and took the oath of allegiance 
to the United States government — this 
fellow Woolf made the prison of the Con- 
federate enlisted men a veritable torture- 
house. After taps were sounded I would 
often, with the aid of Lieut. Bob Bowie 
and Capt. Tom Roche, my bunk-mates, 
steal into the enlisted men's camp next to 
ours, separated by a high board fence, and 
hear from the men the story of the atro- 
cious treatment this fellow Woolf, Hack- 
out, and the other scoundrels would in- 
flict upon the helpless sick and poor Con- 
federate prisoners of war, who could not 
make complaint, for the reason their com- 
plaints never got further than Captain 
Ahl, who never brought the matter to 
General Schoepf's attention. 

Through that incomprehensible 
means that can not be defined nor ex- 
plained, and is only known to prisoners 
of war, we, confined in the officers' camp 
of the prison, became possessed of the 
knowledge that there was to be an ex- 
change of prisoners of war. We seldom 



59 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

saw a paper; they were not allowed us. 
If a letter was written a prisoner that con- 
tained the least particle of information 
about the outside world save that which 
pertained strictly to family affairs it never 
reached the prisoner to whom it was writ- 
ten. Yet news would get into our camp, 
and we called such news '* grape." One 
day in August, 1864, news spread over 
the camp that the fifty general and field 
officers that had been sent in June to 
Charleston Harbor, S. C, had been ex- 
changed, and that a general exchange of 
prisoners of war, which had been stopped, 
would now be resumed, and very soon 
we would all be back in Dixie. The 
Yankee sergeant who called the prison 
roll confirmed this " grape," but gave no 
time as to when the exchange would be- 
gin or where it would take place. After 
this confirmation by the Yankee sergeant 
the only topic of conversation amongst 
the prisoners was exchange. The man 
who did not believe this " grape " of ex- 
change was looked upon by his fellow- 

60 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

prisoners as a man to be watched — a 
skeptic beyond reformation. After days 
of exchange talk, and the impossibihty to 
chnch or give body to the rumor, interest 
died and we all resumed the quiet of our 
prison life. But a day or two of rest and 
there came another " grape." A sergeant 
of the guard told one of our officers that 
a new cartel of exchange had been 
agreed upon and would surely take place 
just as soon as the status of nigger troops 
could be arranged. A few days after this 
another *' grape " was received, which 
said the question of exchanging nigger 
troops was laid aside by both the Con- 
federate and Federal governments, and 
now exchange was sure. All this was 
taken as gospel truth by the prisoners in 
our camp, but it all proved to be moon- 
shine. But to revive all the '* grape " of 
the past and add new fuel to the exchange 
fire excitement, on the 17th day of Au- 
gust, 1864, the Irish sergeant. Murphy, 
who called the prison roll, informed us 
before we broke ranks, after roll call, that 
— 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

there would be an exchange of prisoners 
in a few days. The rolls were being made 
out and in a few days the first batch would 
be sent South. To disbelieve this was the 
rankest treason; so we all accepted the 
story, yet we looked upon it as '' grape." 
But about 3 o'clock p. m., of August 17th, 
confirmation of the story came, when an 
officer from the fort and Sergeant Mur- 
phy came into the pen and ordered the 
prisoners to fall into line and answer to 
their names, as they would be called, for 
exchange. 

We soon fell into line, the roll call 
began and went on, while the prisoners 
stood in death-like silence awaiting the 
call of their names, each man showing on 
his face the hope of his heart ; each asking 
God, in silent, earnest prayer, that his 
name would be called. I have looked into 
the faces of men in line before a battle, 
when defeat seemed inevitable; I have 
seen the joy of victory take the place of 
doubt; but never in all my life did I wit- 
ness joy so perfect as in the face of the 

62 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

man whose name was called, nor woe so 
abject as on the face of the men whose 
names were passed over. My agitation 
and suspense was just as great as that of 
my comrades, and I did silently, away 
down in the depths of my heart, beg God 
for deliverance from Fort Delaware 
prison. When the M's were called on the 
roll I could hardly contain myself; when 
my name was called I could have shouted 
for joy ; and I really felt sorry that all my 
comrades were not included in the list, as 
we thought, for exchange. And yet the 
sequel proved that those whose names 
were upon the list were the unfortunates, 
and not those whose names had been 
passed over. Not dreaming of the ter- 
rible fate in store for us and the terrible 
ordeal we would be subjected to, we laid 
down that night upon our hard board 
bunks and dreamed sweet dreams of home 
and the welcome awaiting us from loved 
ones and comrades in Dixie. 

Early on the morning of August 
1 8th the whole camp was up and astir, 

6^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

impatient for the word to move. We 
were going home to Dixie, and I do be- 
Heve each man had in his heart a resolve 
that he would never forget Fort Delaware 
and its cruelty. We whose names had 
been called for exchange were in a state 
of anxiety all day, awaiting the order to 
forward. The sun went down and our 
hope went with it. No order to move 
had come ; we were still prisoners of war 
in terrible Fort Delaware prison. Specu- 
lation was rife. " Grape " after '' grape," 
story after story came to us, running riot 
with our disappointment. Each story was 
given credence until finally, in the chaos, 
we came to the conclusion that exchange 
was but a dream, and the Yankees had 
perpetrated a cruel joke upon us and no 
exchange was to be made. Despair drove 
hope from our hearts and sleep from our 
eyes, and suspense held us in her ruthless 
grasp until the morning of August 20th, 
when the sergeant who called the prison 
roll came in to perform his duty and an- 
nounced the order that the men whose 



64 



IvlEUTKNANT P. B. AKERS 
nth Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

names had been called for exchange 
should pack up their belongings and be 
ready to leave the prison pen on a mo- 
ment's notice. This brought back hope 
and drove from our hearts despair; yet 
doubt still held on, and the high board 
fence about the prison pen shut us in 
from liberty and the world without. At 
3 o'clock p. m., August 20th, the order 
came '' Fall into line all you men whose 
names shall be called and be ready for 
exchange." The roll-call was made, five 
hundred and fifty sound, healthy men, 
and fifty wounded men fell into line and 
marched by fours out through the prison 
gate — not for exchange, as we fondly 
hoped, but to torture as brutal and wan- 
ton, as cowardly as was ever inflicted upon 
helpless prisoners of war by the most bar- 
barous nations of savage man. While 
we stood in line in the prison yard await- 
ing the order to move there were some 
most pathetic as well as ridiculous scenes 
enacted between comrades who had stood 
in line of battle together, were captured 

6^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

together, and now one was going home, 
the other to remain a captive. We were 
saying good-bye, teUing those we left be- 
hind to be of good heart, that it would be 
but a few days before they would join us 
in Dixie. We of that six hundred can 
now look back and laugh at the promises 
then made, some of them of the most im- 
possible character. I recall one promise 
made in which we were all in accord. 
That was, just as soon as we put foot in 
Richmond we were all to go in a body to 
President Davis and Congress and de- 
mand that our comrades in Fort Delaware 
should be sent for at once. The fact that 
it would require the consent of the 
United States government to carry out 
this promise never entered our head. 
Some of the partings between mess-mates 
and friends, on that August day in the 
long ago, come back to me most vividly as 
I write. There were men who had stood 
together in the line of death, comrades in 
the army, companions in prison, but now 
to be separated, perchance forever. I re- 

66 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

member now Capt. George W. Kurtz, 
Company K, 5th Va. Inf., Stonewall Bri- 
gade, one of the best and bravest men of 
that famous old command, coming down 
the line. As he reached me he said, " Og- 
den," and the great big tears began to run 
down his cheeks, " when you get back to 
the Valley I want you to get Harry Gil- 
more and a lot of the old brigade ; get all 
you can, go down the Valley, capture 
Sheridan and hold him until you get me 
out of this place. If I stay here I will 
surely die." Of course I promised to 
comply with his request, and we sealed 
the compact with a kiss. It strikes me 
now that Lieutenants Bob Bowie and Pete 
Akers both promised to join me in the 
matter. Poor Bowie has passed over the 
river; Kurtz and Akers are left with my- 
self. During this scene my eyes were not 
dry nor was my heart joyous in leaving 
behind me in prison grand old comrades 
I had learned to love. Poor dear old Pete 
Akers said to one of his Lynchburg com- 
rades, " You just wait until I get home. 

'67 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Blamed if I don't go out and catch old 
Grant and half of his army and hold them 
until you all get out of this place. Poor 
dear old Pete, his great heart was always 
in touch with those in trouble. The Mor- 
gan men, the Forrest men, and Wheeler 
men all made their comrades most ex- 
travagant promises. But our dreams of 
exchange were never to be realized. It 
was the hope hidden by anticipation that 
was to make our disappointment acute. 
Finally the Yankee officer in charge gave 
the order to march. We passed out 
through the prison gate to begin a siege 
of torture. We marched down to the fort 
wharf and were packed on board of the 
small gulf steamship " Crescent City " 
like cattle are packed in railroad cars. The 
hold of the ship was fitted up with rough 
pine bunks to hold eight men — four be- 
low, four above, — there was very little 
ventilation, and in this cramped apartment 
six hundred human beings — prisoners of 
war — were shipped to Gen. J. G. Foster, 
U. S. A., Hilton Head, S. C, to be in- 

68 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

humanly and brutally treated. Our con- 
dition one can imagine; it can not be de- 
scribed. Six hundred prisoners of war, 
three hundred guards, the boat's crew — 
all on board of a small gulf steamer built 
to accommodate not more than half our 
number. After the last prisoner was 
packed below decks the steamer pulled out 
into the channel of the Delaware River 
on the Jersey side. Here we laid until 
midnight tide, when we steamed away 
for Fortress Monroe, fully convinced that 
we were to be exchanged, landed in Dixie 
to meet our loved ones and comrades. 
Believing this, we suffered the discom- 
forts of the prison-ship without murmur. 
The hold — or hole — of the " Crescent 
City," in which we were packed, was be- 
low the ship's water line, imperfectly ven- 
tilated, poorly lighted, and vile in odor 
of tar and grease. Our guard, — iioth 
Home Guards of Ohio, hundred-day men 
who had never seen any field service, — 
were perfectly devoid of feeling, espe- 
cially so for Confederate soldiers, and 

69 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

made our condition much worse than 
those EngHsh soldiers in the Black Hole 
of Calcutta. The guards were quartered 
upon the upper deck of the ship ; one sen- 
tinel was stationed on deck at the hatch- 
way and one below at foot of the ladder 
leading on deck, and under no circum- 
stances would these sentinels allow more 
than two or three prisoners on deck at 
one time to catch a breath of fresh air. 
After a run of one day our ship came 
to anchor under the guns of Fortress 
Monroe and the ships of the fleet guard- 
ing that point. Here we laid at anchor 
some fifteen or more hours, suffering all 
the tortures of heat and seasickness; no 
rations, and the worst drinking water pos- 
sible given us, and the stench from the 
hole we were confined in became almost 
stifling. Our men had been made sea- 
sick by motion of the boat, which made 
our quarters filthy. Beg as we might, we 
were not allowed to go on deck. After 
the long wait Captain Webster, who had 
charge of the guard and prisoners, came 



70 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

on board and informed us that the point 
of exchange, owing to the movements of 
Grant's and Lee's armies, had been 
changed from City Point, Va., to Charles- 
ton Harbor, S. C. Disappointment was 
visible on all faces. Here we were, in 
sight of the promised land, but not al- 
lowed to enter. Indigo was a bright color 
contrasted with our feelings and looks, 
yet we consoled ourselves with the hope 
and the fact that the delay would be but 
for a day or two longer, when we would 
be at home. Then, in our joy, we would 
forget the vile treatment given us on the 
Yankee prison-ship. All the men of our 
party save two or three had been made 
seasick on the run down from Fort Dela- 
ware, which, as I said before, made our 
close quarters below decks a veritable cess- 
pool. We appealed to Captain Webster, 
in charge of the guard, but he gave no 
heed to our protest, and we were com- 
pelled to stand it as best we could. On 
the evening of August 22d the ship pulled 
up anchor and steamed out of Fortress 



71 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Monroe Harbor, bound for Charleston 
Harbor, S. C, under escort of two United 
States gunboats. This looked strange, 
yet little attention was paid to it by our 
men. In fact, in rounding Cape Henry, 
all our men were seasick, and we did not 
take much heed if there was one or a hun- 
dred gunboats guarding us. The heat 
of the ship's boilers, the heat of the 
weather, and the seasickness made our 
condition a veritable orthodox hell, a reg- 
ular sheol in miniature form. Notwith- 
standing all this torture, our men suffered 
in silence, and there was no complain- 
ing. We believed we were going back 
home, and we would not let the Yankees 
see that we suffered. 

Late in the night I had pushed my 
way through the darkness to the step- 
ladder that led up to the deck above, 
awaiting my turn to go on deck. In the 
dark some one spoke to me, and I rec- 
ognized the voice of Col. Abe Fulker- 
son, 63d Tenn. Inf. I said, " Colonel, we 
have fallen into hard lines, but it will 



72 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

soon be over." *' Yes," he said, " Mur- 
ray, it will be over when they kill us, not 
before." Stepping back out of hearing 
of the sentinel, the Colonel said, " Mur- 
ray, do you honestly believe we are to be 
exchanged?" ''Why, most assuredly," I 
replied. " Why not? And when we get 
back to the army w^e will not forget this 
inhuman treatment." "Well, that's all 
right; but, Murray," said Fulkerson, 
" when you and I get back to Dixie the 
war will be done. If the Yankees intend- 
ed to exchange us they would have 
paroled us at Fort Delaware and not sent 
this heavy guard with us. And now we 
have an additional guard in the gun- 
boats. I tell you," he continued, " there 
is trouble ahead for us. Of what char- 
acter I can not say, but bear in mind what 
I say to you: there will be no exchange 
of this six hundred men. I feel certain 
of what I say. Now, again," he said, 
" why are those two officers who took the 
oath at Fort Delaware on this boat? 
Why is it they are entertained in the 



7Z 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

cabin by the Yankee officers while we are 
kept below in this miserable hole? I tell 
you those fellows are birds of ill omen. 
These galvanized rascals mean trouble for 
some one." 

This conversation with Fulkerson 
certainly put a damper on my hope, and 
the more I thought of the conversation 
the more depressed I became, until hope 
had almost fled. When we separated it 
was coming daylight. The ship was roll- 
ing badly, and there seemed to be much 
commotion on the upper deck. The 
guard at the hatchway was doubled and 
no one was allowed to go on deck. The 
engines had stopped working. By some 
means I got on deck, though how I got 
there I never could tell, and tried to as- 
certain the cause of the commotion. I 
heard one of the ship's officers say, '' We 
are aground, sir, off Folly Island. Where 
should have been the Cape Romaine 
Light, we are stuck fast in the sand;" 
which later proved to be true. The night 
was very dark. The route was new to the 



74 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

'' Crescent's " officers, and they had run 
too close into shore and had run the ship 
aground and lost our escorts, the gun- 
boats. 

This accidental grounding of the 
ship sent my spirits away up, and the 
thought came to me, " Now we can cer- 
tainly get back to Dixie without the for- 
mality of exchange." While I was think- 
ing all this over, Col. Van Manning, 3d 
Ark. Inf., came on deck. I hastily told 
him the situation. He at once said, 
" Murray, we must take this ship." He 
went below, a hasty council was held with 
the prisoners, and it was determined that 
we should take the ship. It was arranged 
that Colonels Manning, DeGurney, Abe 
Fulkerson, and Maj. W. W. Goldsbor- 
ough should make the demand for the 
surrender of the ship. If it was declined, 
those below were to rush the guard at 
foot of the ladder, get on deck, capture 
the guard, and go ashore on Folly Island. 
It was a desperate undertaking. It would 
have been certain death for some of us 



75 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

before we could have captured the guard ; 
yet there was no thought of the conse- 
quences of failure, no hesitation as to 
who should lead. By consent, Col. Van 
Manning was the leader, and with him 
we were all ready to chance the fire 
of a thousand guns. Colonels Manning, 
Fulkerson, DeGurney, and Major Golds- 
borough went upon deck and demanded 
that Captain Webster, commanding the 
guard, should surrender the ship into our 
hands at once, otherwise we would take 
it. Our men below were all ready to obey 
the order to rush the guard. Hardly had 
Colonel Manning made the demand for 
the surrender of the ship when, to the 
surprise of all the committee. Captain 
Webster agreed to the surrender of the 
ship. My recollection is that he and his 
men were not to be put into prison, but 
taken to Charleston city and exchanged 
at once, or paroled and sent home; to 
which condition Colonel Manning agreed. 
We were to land our men on Folly Island, 
with assistance of the ship's lifeboats, 

^6 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



and from there make our way to Charles- 
ton city. While the preliminaries of the 
surrender were being arranged a signal 
gun was heard out at sea and soon the 
gunboats hove in sight. Under the 
shadow of their frowning guns hope fled 
and black despair settled upon our hearts. 
The moment the gunboats came in sight 
the cowardly attitude of Captain Webster 
changed to that of impudent defiance. He 
forced some of our officers to go down in 
the coal bunkers of the ship and help to 
throw overboard coal to lighten us off the 
sand bar. The guard drove us all below, 
allowing no prisoners on deck until the 
ship was pulled off the bar. There were 
two incidents which took place while our 
ship was aground worth recording. The 
first showed how deeply Webster and his 
guards hated everything Southern. The 
first mate of the '' Crescent City " was an 
Irishman who had lived, before the war 
began, in New Orleans. He recognized, 
amongst the prisoners, several friends. 
Whenever the chance presented itself he 

77 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

would give our men tobacco, meat, bread, 
in fact anything he could get from the 
ship's stores. The Yankees saw this and 
reported it to Webster, their commander, 
who had the poor Irishman put in irons, 
transferred to the gunboats for court- 
martial, charging the poor fellow with 
running the ship aground that we might 
escape. I have always believed and do 
still believe that Webster made the charge 
against the first mate of the " Crescent 
City " for the sole purpose of hiding his 
abject cowardice in agreeing to surrender 
the ship to unarmed men. We never 
learned what became of the mate. The 
other incident was the escape of Colonel 
Woolfolk from the ship. By some means. 
Colonel Woolfolk, a brave, honorable, 
and true Confederate officer, had permis- 
sion to have a stateroom on the ship. 
Aboard the '' Crescent City " was an old 
colored woman who had belonged to the 
Woolfolk family in South Carolina. She 
was the stewardess of the ship. She rec- 
ognized Colonel Woolfolk, her young 

^8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

master, and determined to help him to es- 
cape. She took him into her Hnen room, 
hid him under the bed, and fed him. She 
hung out of the stern window of the ship 
a sheet to make the guard beheve he had 
dropped by that means into the water and 
gone ashore in the darkness. She kept 
him concealed on board until after the 
ship had landed us on Morris Island. 
When the ship reached New York city 
the old woman smuggled him ashore and 
gave him money. He succeeded in get- 
ting to Canada, from there to England, 
and back to the South on a blockade run- 
ner; and the Yankees never learned how 
he made his escape until he published it 
after the war. 

After some hours of delay, with the 
aid of the gunboats, we got off of the 
sand bar and proceeded on our way to 
Charleston Harbor. The atmosphere be- 
low deck had now become terrible, and 
Webster positively refused to allow the 
ship's crew to put the hose on the pumps 
and wash the filth out of our quarters. 



79 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

It was good enough for Rebels, he said. 
When we reached the blockading fleet off 
Charleston no one was allowed on deck 
from below. Again we were in sight of 
the promised land; would we enter? was 
the absorbing question we asked one 
another. The anxiety amongst the pris- 
oners became intense. We all hoped for 
an exchange, yet there was a doubt. 

After being kept a whole day below 
decks a request was made by Colonel 
Manning, of Captain Webster, that from 
fifteen to twenty of the prisoners should 
be allowed to go on deck at one time to 
get some fresh air. In his appeal to 
Webster, Colonel Manning said : " We 
are away out here in the ocean; we are 
surrounded by your gunboats, and no man 
can swim from here ashore; no man can 
escape ; it's brutal to keep us down below 
in that pest hole." The only reply 
Webster made to this appeal was '' You 
must stay below decks." Colonel Man- 
ning then said, " Captain Webster, if you 
will not allow us on deck have the hose of 



80 




LIEUTENANT D. B. MERCHANT 
4th Virginia Cavalry 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

the ship turned on and wash the filth out 
of our quarters." To this Webster again 
said no. We could obtain no information 
whatever about exchange from the guard, 
the sink of the ship was, we found out, 
on the upper deck near the wheel, so we 
kept a constant line of men going all the 
time that we might know if the flag of 
truce boats were together in the harbor, 
and when they separated. On the day 
after and for several days after our ar- 
rival in Charleston Harbor our hearts 
were gladdened by the reports from the 
upper deck that the flag of truce boats 
were together. At night they would sep- 
arate, and we could judge, by the conduct 
of the Yankees towards us, that nothing 
had been accomplished in exchange. On 
the fifth day after our arrival off Charles- 
ton one of the Yankee guards told Lieut. 
Bob Bowie that the exchange of prisoners 
had all been fixed for next day, in Char- 
leston Harbor. We were all elated. To 
confirm this report our boat took up 
anchor and we steamed, as we thought, 

8i 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

towards Charleston, but at daylight found 
ourselves far out at sea. During the day 
we steamed back to our old anchorage 
under the guns of the blockading fleet. 
No one seemed able to interpret this 
move. Late in the evening our scouts 
from the upper deck reported the flag of 
truce boats together, just off Fort Sumter. 
All night the excitement amongst the 
prisoners ran high. At night our ship 
again took up anchor and steamed out 
to sea, and next morning, when allowed 
to go on deck, we found ourselves in Hil- 
ton Head Harbor. Here we remained 
three days, daily begging Captain 
Webster to turn on the ship's hose and 
wash the filth out of our quarters, which 
he persistently refused to do. In fact, we 
could not get him to do the least thing to 
alleviate our suffering, although he was 
fully cognizant of the filthy condition of 
our prison quarters below decks. After 
our stay of three days at Hilton Head, 
at the mouth of Broad River, our ship 
again pulled anchor and we steamed back 

82 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

towards Charleston. In our close, hot 
quarters our suffering was the most in- 
tense. The Yankees knew it, yet they 
would do nothing to relieve us, but 
seemed to enjoy the torture they inflicted 
upon us. We arrived off Morris Island 
on the morning of September 7, 1864, 
and had now been eighteen days on this 
prison ship, suffering the tortures of the 
damned, and not the least effort was made 
by the brute who had charge of us to 
curtail our suffering. About 10 o'clock 
of this morning, September 7th, Captain 
Webster, who had charge of us, coolly 
informed us that it never had been the 
intention of the United States govern- 
ment to exchange us. That we would be 
placed on Morris Island under the fire 
of our own guns, in retaliation, he said, 
for the Union prisoners under fire in 
Charleston city, of the guns of Morris 
Island and fleet shelling that city. After 
Webster had vouchsafed us this informa- 
tion, most forcibly came back to me Col- 
onel Fulkerson's prophecy that the war 

8^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

would be over before we ever set foot in 
Dixie. On the afternoon of the 7th day 
of September we were landed on Morris 
Island. The day was hot, but we were 
once more in God's sunshine and out of 
the pest hole of the prison ship. 

Two old dismantled schooner hulks, 
the " Jno. A. Genet " and the '' Transit," 
were utilized as our prison, and the 54th 
Mass. (nigger) Regt., Col. E. N. Hal- 
lowell commanding, our guard. And 
now in truth began our torture. Every 
man seemed crushed. Not much talking 
was done by the prisoners, yet we all 
hoped that fate, in a relenting moment, 
would help us and drive away black 
despair. 

After the first night on these old 
hulks, filled as they were with rats and 
vermin, that old courage that made the 
Confederate soldier a hero came back to 
us, and we determined to face the fate 
in store for us without flinching or 
whining. God had made us men; we 
could die like men, if need be, for the 

8^^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

cause of right, even if death came to us 
in a Yankee prison. The charge that the 
Confederate government had six hundred 
Union officers under fire in Charleston 
city was as false as the brain that con- 
ceived the story; as false as the tongue 
that uttered it ; and Secretary Stanton and 
Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., knew there 
were no prisoners of war under fire in 
Charleston city. They had the testimony 
of their own officers, who had been pris- 
oners of war in Charleston city, that the 
story was false. Yet the testimony and 
word of these gentlemen was ignored by 
Stanton and Foster, and the word of nig- 
gers and Confederate deserters taken as 
gospel truth. The officers who had been 
prisoners of war in Charleston city: 
Generals H. W. Wessells, Seymour, 
Scammon, et al, over their own signa- 
tures, say they were not under fire, but, 
on the contrary, in no danger; with good 
quarters and plenty to eat, kindly and 
courteously treated. Yet they were not 
listened to as reliable witnesses, but ig- 

~ 85 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

nored because niggers and Confederate 
deserters said there were Union soldiers 
under jfire in Charleston. General Wes- 
sells went so far in his letter to General 
Foster as to protest against putting offi- 
cers under fire on Morris Island ; yet Gen- 
eral Foster paid no attention to the pro-^ 
test. 

The life of a prisoner of war is at 
best hard and irksome ; and it is extreme- 
ly hard when he is restricted in all things 
necessary to the simplest comfort. He 
must suffer, he does suffer, and suffers 
more than tongue can describe or pen 
portray when his rations are curtailed to 
the point of barely keeping him from 
starvation. Time and time again the 
Confederate authorities protested against 
the inhuman treatment of our men in 
Northern prisons, and begged the Wash- 
ington authorities, in humanity's name, 
to exchange prisoners of war. " Send 
your transports," said President Davis 
and General Lee, through Exchange 
Commissioner Ould, " and take your sick 

86 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

and wounded men. We can not feed 
them; we can not care for them." But 
Secretary Stanton said " No, we will 
make no exchange; our men in your 
hands must suffer." The Union prison- 
ers of war in all the Southern prisons 
were fed the same ration that was given 
the Confederate soldier in the field. What 
more could the Confederates do? Gen- 
eral Lee, in an order, said '' all wounded 
on the field must he treated alike ; all pris- 
oners of w^ar must be treated humanely " ; 
and the Confederate Congress passed a 
law to this effect. Mr. Stanton and Gen- 
eral Grant both said " We can not, we 
will not, exchange prisoners of war. The 
South can not feed our men; we can not 
get any benefits from exchange, while the 
men we return to the South only help to 
swell Lee's army. Our men must suffer 
for the good of those who are now con- 
tending with the terrible Lee " ; and these 
officials in Washington found it cheaper 
to starve Confederate soldiers in North- 
ern prisons than fight them on the battle- 



87 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

field. The United States had the world 
from which to draw their army and their 

supplies ; the Confederacy had but a small 
area, without the slightest chance of 
getting supplies from the outside world 
save when a blockade runner could slip 
through the fleets blockading our ports. 
Neither the men responsible for the wan- 
ton cruelty nor their apologists can give 
a valid reason for the inhuman treatment 
meted out to us on Morris Island, Hilton 
Head, and Fort Pulaski. 

The following two letters, — found 
in Vol. XXXV, War Records,— show be- 
yond question that the United States gov- 
ernment officials at Washington, with 
Gen. J. G. Foster, made preparation for 
the infliction of their brutality upon us, 
and that Col. E. N. Hallowell, 54th Regt. 
Mass. Vols, (niggers), was chosen as 
commandant of our camp because of his 
brutal nature — just the man to carry out 
the beastly orders Gen. J. G. Foster, U. 
S. A., might issue by authority of Edwin 
M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

88 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Headquarters Department of the South, 

Charleston, S. C, August 23, 1864. 
Brig.-Gen. a. Schimmelfennig, 

Commanding Northern District, 
Department South. 
General : 

I am directed by the major-general com- 
manding to state he has ordered Captain Su- 
ter, Chief Engineer Department of South, to 
proceed to Morris Island for purpose of con- 
sulting with you in regard to the location of 
the camp for the prisoners of war daily ex- 
pected in this department from the North. 
The major-general commanding desires that 
this camp be placed between Fort Strong and 
Battery Putnam. If this position is con- 
sidered too dangerous you are authorized to 
locate the camp wherever yourself and Captain 
Suter shall deem the best and safest from at- 
tack of the enemy. Should it be necessary 
to have more troops to guard these six hun- 
dred, another regiment can be sent from this 
place. Still, it is desired that they may be 
guarded by the force at present in the North- 
ern District if it is possible, as we want all 
the troops at this place that we now have. 

8^^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

I have the honor to be, General, very 
respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. L. M. Burger^ 
Assistant Adjutant-General. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, p. 256.) 

Headquarters Northern District^ Depart- 
ment OF the South, 
Morris Island, September 8, 1864. 
Gen. J. G. Foster, 

General: — I have the honor to report 
that on yesterday the Rebel prisoners of war 
were safely landed and placed in the stockade 
in front of Fort Strong. I found on my ar- 
rival here that General Schimmelfennig had 
already detailed the 54th Massachusetts Regi- 
ment (negroes), Colonel Hallowell, to guard 
the prisoners, and as I was expected as far 
as possible to carry out his plans, have not 
changed the detail. I believe no better of- 
ficer than Colonel Hallowell can be found 
in whose hands to place the prisoners for their 
safe keeping, and thus far the duty has been 
well performed. Last night was so dark and 
the weather so stormy that the navy boats did 
not report for duty at Paine's Dock. My boat 
brigade was out but saw nothing unusual. The 
navy detail have reported this morning and 



90 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

no exertion will be spared to carry out suc- 
cessfully the object of the expedition. 
I am very respectfully, 

R. Saxton, 
Brig.-Gen. Commanding. 
(War Records, Vol. xxxv, pp. 275-276.) 



91 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



CHAPTER THREE. 

March from old Schooner Hulk to Prison 
Stockade — Hot Sun — Men Sick Forced 
to Move On — Brutal White Officers and 
Nigger Soldiers. Prison Stockade — 
Water, Rations, and Shelter. 

AFTTER two days' confinement on 
the old schooner hulks, without 
much drinking water or rations, 
we were ordered, on the afternoon of the 
second day, to turn out and form in line 
on the beach. After forming and the 
counting of our number was finished the 
order was giving to march. We started 
up the beach in full view of Sumter^s 
guns. The day was intensely hot ; the sun 
shone down upon us in all its splendor. 
We had not gone over half a mile before 
some of our men, weakened from the 
eighteen days on the filthy prison ship, 
fell, from prostration, in the sand. I was 
of this unfortunate number. The brutal 
white officers of the 54th Massachusetts 
(nigger) Regiment made the negro 

92 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

guards force us to get up and stagger on 
at the point of the bayonet in the hands 
of a negro soldier. When I had fallen in 
the sand an old man, wearing the badge 
of the Sanitary Commission, attempted to 
cross the guard line to help me. He was 
driven back by a burly Dutch lieutenant, 
with an oath, who ordered the negro 
guard to make me move on. I heard the 
old man protesting to the guard that we 
were human beings even if we were 
Rebels. When we reached the stockade 
prison-pen gate we were again halted, 
counted off by fours and sent inside the 
inclosure, where a negro sergeant as- 
signed us to tents, putting four men in 
each small A-tent which would not com- 
fortably hold more than two men. But 
what mattered this? We were prisoners 
of war, in the hands of a great and good 
government. Our camp was laid off be- 
tween batteries Waggoner and Gregg: 
Waggoner in our rear, Gregg in our 
front. We were in exact line of the guns 
of Fort Sumter. To the left of Battery 



93 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Gregg was a mortar battery ; next to this 
was what the Yankees called an iron bat- 
tery; further to our left, facing Charles- 
ton, was a large gun the Yanks called 
the " Swamp Angel " ; and off to the right 
of our camp was the fleet of monitors 
with their guns all trained on our stock- 
ade prison, always ready shotted should 
we show the least sign of disobedience 
to the orders governing our prison. The 
guns on Battery Waggoner were ar- 
ranged to sweep our camp from the rear, 
and the guns on Battery Gregg to rake 
our camp from the front. All these Fed- 
eral batteries constantly drew the fire 
of our guns on Sumter, Johnson Island, 
Fort Moultrie and other forts guarding 
Charleston Harbor. The prison stockade 
was built of long pine poles driven in the 
sand and cleated together by pine boards. 
About the top of the high fence was a 
parapet, built that the negro guards might 
overlook our camp. This pen enclosed 
about two acres of sand. On the inside of 
the stockade fence, about ten feet from it, 



94 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

was stretched an inch rope, the rope be- 
ing supported on pickets driven into the 
sand. This was designated the dead Hne. 
For a prisoner to approach this line, on 
any pretext, was sure death ; the sentinels 
were ordered to shoot him without hesi- 
tation or challenge. The space between 
the dead line and fence curtailed the space 
in our stockade prison very much. At 
the head of the middle street was placed 
a Mitrailleuse Requa gun, loaded and 
ready to open upon our camp at a mo- 
ment's notice. All this precaution was 
taken for fear we would overpower the 
negro guards and capture the island. 

After we had been arranged in com- 
panies and assigned to tents Colonel Hal- 
lowell, commandant of the 54th Massa- 
chusetts (negro) Regiment, our guards, 
had read to each company of prisoners 
the rules for government of the stockade 
prison. One rule provided for the shoot- 
ing of any prisoner that touched the dead 
line rope; another rule was, that if ten or 
more prisoners were assembled together 



95 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

the sentinel was to order them to dis- 
perse, and if the order was not instantly 
obeyed by the prisoners the sentinel was 
instructed to fire into the crowd. This 
order kept us in constant fear of the ig- 
norant nigger guard shooting us. Ow- 
ing to the crowded state of our prison 
boundary it was an utter impossibility for 
us to keep from forming crowds, and the 
negro guards had little consideration for 
the '' Rebs," as they termed us. One day 
Colonels Van Manning, Fulkerson, and 
myself were standing at the end of the 
centre street of the stockade, talking ; two 
other prisoners joined us, making the 
crowd just five. The negro sentinel on 
the parapet, in the most insolent manner, 
ordered us to " 'sperse dat crowd." Con- 
scious we were not violating any rule of 
the prison, we paid no heed to the nig- 
ger. The second time he gave the order 
he bellowed out at the top of his voice: 
*' 'Sperse dat crowd, you damned Rebs; 
dar's ball in dis here gun, just melting 
to get into your body. Hear me, don't 

96 




LIEUTENANT J. W. O. FUNK 
5th Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

you?" Of course this last warning was 
sufficient to " 'sperse de crowd." Another 
rule was, no lights or fires would be per- 
mitted in our camp at any time after taps 
were sounded; if a match was struck in 
our tents the negro sentinel was ordered 
to shoot into the tent where he saw the 
light. All the blankets given us at Fort 
Delaware were taken from us before we 
left the prison ship '' Crescent City," 
which left fully two-thirds of our number 
with only the clothes they stood in for 
covering. The following order for gov- 
ernment of our prison is the most drastic 
ever made by men authorized by a gov- 
ernment claiming civilization : 

Headquarters United States Forces, 
Morris Island, S. C, September 7, 1864. 
The following rules and regulations are 
hereby announced for the government of the 
camp of the prisoners of war: 

The prisoners will be divided into eight 
detachments, seventy-five in each, lettered A, 
B, C, etc., each prisoner numbered i, 2, 3, 4, 
etc. Each detachment will be under the 
charge of a warden, who will be detailed from 



97 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

the guard for that duty. There will be three 
roll calls every day, the first at one hour after 
sunrise, the second at 12 m., the third at one- 
half an hour before sunset, at which times the 
prisoners will be counted by the wardens, and 
the reports will be taken by the officer of the 
day at the company streets, before the ranks 
are broken. Each warden will see that the 
quarters of his detachment are properly 
policed, and will make the detail necessary 
for such duty (from the prisoners). Sick call 
will be at 9 o'clock a. m, each day. Each 
warden will make a morning report to the 
officers in charge, on blanks suitable for the 
purpose. 

There will be two barrel sinks for each 
detachment, which will be placed on the flanks 
of the camp during the day, and at night in 
the company streets. They will be emptied 
after each roll call by detail from each de- 
tachment. No talking will be allowed after 
evening roll call, and no prisoner will leave 
his tent after that time except to obey the 
calls of nature. During the day the prisoners 
will be allowed the limits of the camp as 
marked by the rope running between the 
stockade and line of tents. Prisoners passing 
the line under any pretence whatever will be 
shot by the sentries. No persons, except .the 



98 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

guard and officer being on duty at the camp, 
will be allowed to communicate with the pris- 
oners without written permission from these, 
or superior headquarters. The sentries will 
always have their guns loaded and capped. 
If more than ten prisoners are seen together 
except at meal time they will be fired upon 
by the sentinels. If there is any disturbance 
whatever in the camp or any attempt made by 
the prisoners to escape, the camp will be 
opened upon with grape and canister musketry, 
and the Requa batteries. If a prisoner is sick 
he may purchase such luxuries as the surgeon 
in charge may direct. The prisoners will be 
allowed to purchase only the following named 
articles: Writing materials, pipes, tobacco, 
and necessary clothing. Everything bought by 
or sent them will be inspected by the provost- 
marshal. The prisoners will be allowed to 
write letters once each week, not more than 
half sheet of paper to each letter. The letters 
will be open and pass through the hands of 
the provost-marshal before being mailed. No 
candles or lights of any kind will be allowed. 
The hours for meals will be as follows: 
Breakfast, 7 o'clock a. m. ; dinner, 12m.; sup- 
per, 5 o'clock p. m. The prisoners will be 
served under the direction of the provost- 
marshal. 



99 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

By order of Col. William Gurney, 127th 
N. Y. Vols., commanding post. 

R. L. Jewett, 
Captain 54th Mass. Vols., 
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. 
Official: G. W. Little^ 

1st Lieutenant 127th N. Y. Vols., 
Acting aide-de-camp. 

Our rations, under this order, was a 
menu for wooden gods. It consisted of 
four hardtack army crackers, often rot- 
ten and green with mold, and one ounce 
of fat meat, issued to us at morning roll 
call; for dinner, we received one-half 
pint of bean or rice soup, made as the 
caprice of the cook suggested; for sup- 
per, we were allowed all the wind we 
could inhale. At sundown we were com- 
pelled to go into our tents and there re- 
main until roll call in the early morning. 
The ration stated was all we received 
while on Morris Island. Our drinking 
water was obtained by digging holes in 
the sand, and then waiting until sufficient 
very insipid water would ooze out of the 
sand to quench thirst. 



100 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



The second day of our confinement 
in the stockade will never be forgotten 
by the survivors of that six hundred. At 
early noon the Federal batteries on Mor- 
ris Island, and all the guns of the Yankee 
fleet, opened on the Confederate forts and 
Charleston city. Our batteries all replied 
and for two or three hours the duel lasted. 
The shells from Sumter and our other 
batteries fell thick and fast upon the isl- 
and, most of them uncomfortably close 
to our stockade. We began to think, for 
a time, our fellows in Sumter had forgot- 
ten we were prisoners on Morris Island; 
but before the duel was over we found 
our gunners were not directing their 
shells towards our pen. It was amusing 
to watch the negro guards on the para- 
pet dodge and drop when a shell from 
Sumter went across our stockade, or 
burst over the pen ; it was all Hallowell 
and his officers could do to keep the ne- 
gro sentinels at their posts, the poor nig- 
gers were so frightened. Just as soon 
as they heard the report of a gun from 



lOI 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Sumter they would drop down on the 
parapet in fear. Hallowell and his offi- 
cers would beat them up with their 
swords. After this day there was only 
the general firing during the day, though 
at night our guns would be more rapidly 
fired, especially so our mortar guns. Af- 
ter we had been on the luxurious diet of 
four hardtack army crackers, one ounce 
of fat meat, and half a pint of sandy 
bean soup (which often tasted like it had 
been seasoned with soap), and with the 
bad drinking water, our condition was 
pretty bad. Our cooking was done out- 
side of the prison stockade by negroes 
detailed for the purpose. What filth 
these chefs put into the soup we could not 
see or know ; it was brought into us — 
we could eat it or let it alone. We did 
not expect, as prisoners of war in Yankee 
hands, to have all the delicacies served 
by a Delmonico, but we did expect enough 
of food to sustain life. But Draco Stan- 
ton and his lieutenants, Gen. J. G. Fos- 
ter and Colonel Hallowell, had different 

I02 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

views of humanity. This menu of star- 
vation, issued by the United States gov- 
ernment, was good enough for helpless 
prisoners of war. Just think of this bill 
of fare: 

Breakfast, four rotten hardtack 
crackers. 

Dinner, one-half pint sandy soup. 

Supper, all the wind one could in- 
hale. 

Our medical treatment was the acme 
of cruelty, rendered by a red-headed cow 
doctor, whose only remedy, no matter 
what your complaint, was an opium pill 
or dose of Jamaica ginger. This red- 
headed doctor always reminded me of a 
country cross-road cow doctor whose 
knowledge of medicine was culled from 
a patent medicine almanac, and his prac- 
tice justified the conclusion. 

The colonel of the 54th Massachu- 
setts (negro) Regiment, his officers and 
niggers, were regular daisies. I recall 
one little sawed-off lieutenant who often 
called the prison roll; or rather took the 

103 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

report from the niggers who counted us 
three times each day. This Httle fellow 
had a sword about two feet longer than 
he was tall. The sword would get tangled 
up in his short legs, reminding one, as 
Pete Akers said, of a boy playing soldier. 
This fellow's dignity was huge — about 
on the order of a free nigger parson be- 
fore '* de wah," at a lodge funeral. 

Colonel Hallowell, with whom we 
were brought more in contact than any 
other officer, — for the reason he had full 
control of our pen, — was about the mean- 
est fellow our misfortunes brought us in 
connection with; in fact, the negroes he 
commanded were Chesterfields in polite- 
ness in contrast with this fellow. After 
we had been some weeks in the stockade 
under fire of our own guns, and the star- 
vation rations had begun to tell upon 
us, this doughty colonel one afternoon 
came into the stockade, had us drawn 
up in line, and made the following 
speech which I have never forgotten. He 
said: 



104 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

'' The fate of war has placed you 
prisoners in my hands, and I will treat 
you as prisoners. I feel it my bounded 
duty to fight men who have raised their 
unhallowed hands against their country's 
flag. But I will try and treat you as 
men, since you have fallen into my 
hands, and this will be my duty so long 
as you obey the rules and orders laid 
down for the government of this prison 
camp." 

But he did not keep his word. He 
treated us like animals, and he did not 
intend to treat us like men when he said 
he would do so. He violated every prom- 
ise he ever made us, both in the spirit 
and letter; there was nothing this fellow 
left undone to make us uncomfortable 
and annoy us; he never let one opportu- 
nity pass to show his hatred for the 
South and her soldiers. And yet in our 
six hundred prisoners were the sons and 
grandsons of ancestors who had helped 
to make American history and consecrate 
the American flag, when probably the 



105 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ancestors of this fellow Hallowell were 
Massachusetts Tories, doing all they 
could to defeat the cause of the American 
Colonies, and possibly spies for the Eng- 
lish crown. And yet the fate of war 
compelled us to listen to the impudence 
of this doughty hero — unable to resent 
his insults. How brave he was, backed 
as he was by the bayonets of his nigger 
soldiers. One of his smart jokes was to 
come into our prison pen and say, in his 
arrogant drawl, '' Gentlemen, to-morrow 
I will have some barrels placed in the 
streets of your inclosure into which you 
can throw your bones. Of course, I mean 
your meat bones." This was cruel; it 
was cowardly to make such jests of our 
starving condition. He could see daily 
how the treatment was breaking down 
and killing our men; he reveled in our 
terrible condition. Most of the prisoners 
were suffering with acute dysentery. 
From this terrible complaint not one es- 
caped; but none of our men complained; 
none murmured against our government. 
— 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

We knew the Richmond authorities were 
doing all they could for us, and, like the 
dying Caesar, we were too proud to let our 
Yankee jailors see that we suffered. It 
seems like blasphemy to charge the crea- 
tion of such a creature as this fellow to 
nature, and really an insult to his satanic 
majesty to say he created such a carica- 
ture on the human race as was Hallowell. 
As I stated before, acute dysentery, 
caused by the bad water we drank, and 
miserable rations of rotten, worm-filled 
hardtack crackers, put our men in very 
bad condition. On the night of Septem- 
ber 28, 1864, Lieutenant Frank Peake, of 
Morgan's men, who was one of my tent 
mates, was taken very sick, with every 
symptom of cholera. We had nothing 
to relieve his pain, and did not dare go 
out to call for help. Had one of us left 
the tent or called for help, the negro 
guard would have fired on us and been 
glad of the opportunity to do so. Their 
orders were to shoot any man who left 

his tent after taps except to obey the 

— - - — ^-^^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

calls of nature. Poor dear old Peake! 
He suffered, all the night through, the 
most intense pain. At roll call I told the 
negro sergeant that Lieutenant Peake was 
ill and needed the attention of the doctor 
at once ; but the doctor never came in un- 
til 9 o'clock, the regular hour for sick 
call of the prison pen. When he did come 
in, Lieutenant Hudgins, C. S. N., and 
Lieutenant Hugh Dunlap, my other tent 
mates, requested me to see the doctor and 
ask him to come at once to see Lieutenant 
Peake. I went to the hospital tent, as it 
was called, approaching the doctor in 
the most polite manner and with the most 
polite language I could command, re- 
lated to him Lieutenant Peake's condi- 
tion, urging him to go over to see Peake, 
who, I thought, was in a dying condition, 
and would die unless he had immediate 
medical attention. Before this red-head- 
ed dispenser of pills replied to my urgent 
appeal for help, he looked me over from 
head to foot, then said, " Can't the man 
come to my tent." " Why, of course not, 

io8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

doctor; he can not stand upon his feet; 
he is too ill to walk. Could he have come 
here I surely would not be so urgent in 
my appeal to you." " Well/' he said, " if 
he is too bad to walk over here, he must 
wait until these other fellows here are 
served; they all need attention." ''But, 
doctor," I said, " these gentlemen, in a 
manner, can help themselves. Lieutenant 
Peake is helpless, and I feel sure every 
gentlemen here will wait if you will go 
to see Lieutenant Peake." With this I 
turned upon my heel and left the doctor's 
presence in disgust. I could hardly be- 
lieve there was a man living, wearing 
the badge of a fraternity whose aim was 
to save, not destroy life, who would re- 
fuse to relieve a dying fellow mortal, a 
helpless prisoner of war. I returned to 
my tent and reported my failure to get the 
doctor to respond. The boys could hard- 
ly credit it. Captain W. P. Crow, an old 
friend and companion of Lieutenant 
Peake, went over to see the dispenser of 
opium pills, but met with no more success 

109 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

than I did in inducing the doctor to see 
our patient. What can be said of such 
fellows as this doctor? Is nature respon- 
sible for their creation? Yes, but they 
sprang up from the foul growth of some 
northern city during the war; they were 
the poison weeds in the garden of life, 
killing with their poison all that is good 
and beautiful. Late in the afternoon the 
doctor came to our tent, but poor Peake 
had passed beyond human skill. Death, 
with her cruel, cold hand, was reaching 
out for him. He lived during the night, 
suffering the pains of the damned. On 
the morning of September 29th Captain 
Crow and Lieutenant Dunlap succeeded 
in getting Colonel Hallowell to remove 
Lieutenant Peake from the prison pen 
to the hospital, just out of range of Sum- 
ter's guns. Poor, dear Peake ! We who 
knew him loved him for his Christian 
virtues, manly courage, and gentleness 
of heart. When he was carried through 
the prison pen gate we all felt we had 
looked for the last time upon him alive. 

no 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

He lingered for a day or two and died on 
the afternoon of October 2, 1864, just 
four days after his removal from under 
fire. Far away from loved ones and 
home this grand hero closed his eyes, to 
open them again only when the Grand 
Commander of all armies shall announce 
the day of the great muster. There in 
the hospital tent on Morris Island, upon 
a pallet of straw, sleeping the sleep of the 
just, the true, and the brave, lay a Con- 
federate soldier whose spirit had sur- 
rendered only to death. He laid down 
his life for the cause of the South, the 
land he loved. About him stood men in 
blue; they were enemies, they could not 
understand, they could not know, the 
great heart that had ceased to beat. In 
the twilight we dug him a grave in the 
sands of Morris Island, and laid him to 
rest, while the shot and the shells from 
Charleston and Sumter's batteries sang 
his funeral dirge. Peace to his ashes ! 

This is not the only case of heroism 
of the Confederate Army. The Confed- 

III 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

erate Army was composed of men like 
Lieutenant Peake. High upon the scroll 
of honor and fame their names are writ- 
ten in letters of gold. There they will 
ever remain, the brightest gems in the 
Southland's coronet. Story and song will 
tell their deeds of valor and courage ; gen- 
erations will sing their praise; they need 
no monuments of metal nor stone to per- 
petuate their memory and names. Their 
fortitude, courage, and fidelity to duty 
during four long, bloody years of war, 
such as the world never knew, is a monu- 
ment that will outlast any that could be 
constructed by human hands. When the 
truthful history of the war is written, 
and the passion of men has cooled, that 
an authentic record may be made, upon 
that record will be found the names of 
every Confederate soldier who wore the 
gray and did his duty. It matters not if 
he came from the halls of wealth or the 
lowly cottage upon the mountain side, nor 
if he wore the stars of the general of- 
ficer, or the gray blouse of the ranks. If 



112 




i.ie;ute;nant-colonei. e. s. m. lk broten 

I,ouisiana 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

he did his duty he was a patriot, a noble- 
man. His old gray jacket gave him a 
patent to nobility greater and grander 
than those conferred by mortal hands. 
God, Himself, gave to the Confederate 
soldier the right of nobility; the old gray 
jacket was his decoration and insignia 
of the cause we loved and lost — the no- 
bility of manhood. 

We had been now on Morris Island 
several weeks, suffering the pangs of star- 
vation, and every man bearing himself 
with dignity and courage through the 
trying ordeal. One morning in October, 
to our surprise, the guns of old Sumter, 
Charleston, Moultrie, and Johnson were 
silent. We could not divine why, and 
began to make all kinds of surmises. The 
negro guards and their officers walked 
leisurely about, without the fearful look 
they generally bore. After a long time 
we ascertained, from one of the negro 
sergeants in charge of our camp, that the 
Confederate government had demanded 
our removal from under fire and off of 

113 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Morris Island, or they were going to place 
six hundred officers (Federal prisoners of 
war) on the ramparts of Fort Sumter. 
He also stated that General Foster, com- 
manding United States forces, had asked 
for a flag of truce conference, which w^as 
then in session. We could see the men 
on Fort Sumter's ramparts. All was as 
serene as a church picnic. Later on, this 
negro sergeant informed us that the Sec- 
retary of War, himself, from Washing- 
ton, was on the flag of truce boat with 
his cabinet, and was making arrange- 
ments to exchange all the prisoners of 
war, colored troops included. We were, 
of course, elated at this information, and 
speculation, rumors and '' grape " filled 
the camp. At sundown the guns of 
Charleston, Sumter, and the Yankee guns 
on Morris Island began booming; then 
we knew there was to be no exchange; 
but next morning the guns were again 
silent, the flag of truce boats were again 
together. At evening roll call the negro 
sergeant informed us exchange had been 

114 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

accomplished. To confirm this Colonel 
Hallowell informed us he was going to 
be rid of us at last, and ordered us to be 
ready at daylight the next morning to 
move out of the stockade and off the isl- 
and, for exchange. At daylight we were 
ordered to fall into line ; out of the prison 
stockade we marched, down the beach to 
the old schooner hulks, which were util- 
ized as our prison when we first landed 
on the island. We were packed on board 
of these old schooner hulks, the "Transit" 
and " J. A. Genet," where we remained 
thirty-six hours while the flag of truce 
boats were together off Fort Sumter. 
The conference failed to agree upon an ex- 
change and we were marched back into 
the stockade prison pen in the afternoon, 
to again face the rigors of retaliation and 
brutality ; and it can be said the Immortal 
Six Hundred faced the music like men. 
Why the exchange had failed of accom- 
plishment we could never learn. On our 
return to the prison pen, from our march 
down the beach, our hearts were made 



115 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

glad by a lot of boxes of tobacco, sweet 
potatoes, and peanuts our government had 
sent us under flag of truce. This renewed 
our strength, and we were all grateful. 
It was all our government had to send, 
and it told us the story of want at home, 
and gave us the cheering, silent news that 
we were not forgotten by our govern- 
ment and people in our trials and tribu- 
lations. For several days we just revelled 
in good old Rebel sweet potatoes and pea- 
nuts, and blew off our misfortunes in the 
smoke of good old Dixie tobacco. Our 
cares for the time vanished, and we slept 
like princes after a banquet. In the early 
morning the shelling of the island awoke 
us, the same old monotony settled upon 
the camp, the negro sentinels surrounded 
our camp, and the daily roll calls of the 
Yanks kept us from forgetting we were 
still prisoners of war on Morris Island, 
under fire of our own guns, suffering all 
the torments of retaliation, as unjust as 
it was cowardly and cruel. 

After several days we were again or- 
— - 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

dered to pack up and be ready to move 
at daylight from the prison pen. Colonel 
Hallowell, who gave the order, said, " In 
view of the fact that you are to move 
early in the morning, you can all leave 
your tents earlier than usual to prepare 
for the march." Thinking, of course, he 
would give orders to the sentinels to allow 
us to leave our tents (and he said he 
would give the order) some of our fel- 
lows, prisoners, got up very early and 
built a small fire in the rear of their 
tents to boil some sweet potatoes. The 
negro sentinel ordered them to put out 
that fire, and followed his order with a 
shot from his musket, seriously but not 
dangerously wounding Captain Blair, of 
North Carolina, and Lieutenant Harris, 
of Virginia. The matter was reported 
to Colonel Hallowell, but no punishment 
or reprimand was inflicted upon the negro 
sentinel who had so flagrantly violated 
Colonel Hallowell's order; and I right 
here want to say that it was the general 
belief of our men that Hallowell never 

117 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

gave the order to his negro sentinels. 
Most Hkely the negro was compHmented 
for shooting Rebel prisoners of war. 

Here is an order that Colonel Hallo- 
well most openly violated. On page 312, 
Volume XXXV, War Records, Stewart 
M. Taylor, Assistant Adjutant-General, 
Department of South, in a letter to Colo- 
nel Hallowell, says : 

" * * * I am directed to inform you that 
the brigadier-general commanding is not de- 
sirous that the Rebel prisoners should be em- 
ployed to empty their sink tubs. Our officers 
in the hands of the Rebel authorities are not 
subjected to this indignity. * * * " 

The letter is dated October 6, 1864, 
and addressed to Colonel Hallowell, in 
command of prison camp, Morris Island, 
S. C. Yet Colonel Hallowell never gave 
the least attention to the order, and com- 
pelled us to do this menial thing, although 
they admit that our people did not subject 
the Federal prisoners of war to such in- 
dignities. 

On pages 284-285, General Foster, 

r^8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



in a letter to General Saxton, command- 
ing Morris Island, says: 

" * * * The rations of our officers (pris- 
oners of war) in Charleston have been ascer- 
tained to be as follows: Fresh meat, three- 
fourths pound, or one-half pound salt meat; 
one-fifth pint of rice; one-half pound of hard 
bread or one-half pint of meal; one-fifth pint 
of beans. I desire, in rationing the prisoners 
of war now in your hands, that you should 
be governed accordingly, making sure that 
they receive no more than the above, except 
what salt or vinegar may be necessary for 
them. Our prisoners confined in Charleston 
do their own cooking, and I desire that the 
prisoners in your hands be made to do the 
same. The cooking must be done within the 
limits of the prison camp, and the printed 
orders of Colonel Gurney modified according- 
I * * * " 

Now here is an admission from the 
major-general commanding the Depart- 
ment of the South that it had been ascer- 
tained that the Confederate government 
was feeding the prisoners of war good 
rations in Charleston, yet we prisoners 



119 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

of war in General Foster's hands, under 
fire on Morris Island, were fed four rot- 
ten hardtack crackers, with half a pint of 
soup each day. Was, we ask, this cruelty 
wanton? If these Yanks had treated us 
half as well as our government treated 
Federal prisoners of war we would have 
made no protest. On the word of a de- 
serter (Charles Harris) from Charleston, 
who said there were 600 or 700 Federal 
prisoners of war under fire in Charleston, 
was this cruel, cowardly retaliation in- 
flicted upon us Confederate soldiers. 
Further on in the same letter General 
Foster calls Saxton's attention to the pos- 
sible attempt that might be made by our 
forces to release us. He says, *' In case 
of an attack, shoot down any Rebel pris- 
oners found out of the stockade." What 
humanity General Foster displays in this 
order; what a contrast between the 
treatment of the Union prisoners of war 
in our hands and the Confederate prison- 
ers of war in the Federal prisons of the 
North. 



120 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

When the order came to move out of 
the stockade pen we thanked God ex- 
change had come at last. We would soon 
be free men, back in Dixie, away from 
Hallowell, Foster, and their brutal nig- 
gers. But, alas, disappointment awaited 
us; hope was to be ousted from our 
hearts by despair, and fate had in store 
for us a harder ordeal. As we marched 
down the beach to once more board the 
old schooner hulks our hearts were glad, 
but before the sun set we knew exchange 
was not for us. Before leaving Morris 
Island all blankets marked U. S. were 
taken from those who had them. This 
was done by order, we were told, of Gen- 
eral Foster. After being packed on the 
old schooner hulks the 127th New York 
Volunteers took charge of us. White 
troops, at last! This was at least a bet- 
terment of our condition. After a short 
delay at the Morris Island wharf, a gun- 
boat took us in tow for Fort Pulaski, on 
Cock-Spur Island, at the mouth of the 
Savannah River. 



121 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Before leaving Morris Island some 
of our number, through influence at 
home, succeeded in being exchanged 
specially. All the wounded of our party 
(fifty or more) were exchanged at Hil- 
ton Head. 

There was nothing of great moment 
occurred on the trip from Morris Island 
to Fort Pulaski. The white troops gave 
us of their rations, and made our condi- 
tion as comfortable as they could. 

There was an incident occurred, 
just as we were leaving the stockade pen 
on Morris Island, that made me regret 
very much my hasty action. As I said 
before, it was the general impression, as 
we marched out of the pen, that we were 
to be exchanged; and this fact made me 
feel like telling Colonel Hallowell my 
opinion of him. He was standing at the 
prison gate, glaring at us as we passed 
out. We were marching by fours ; in the 
fours just ahead of me was Capt. Bruce 
Gibson, Major W. W. Goldsborough, and 
two other officers whose identity I now 

122 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

forget. When I reached Hallowell I 
halted and said, '' You yellow-faced 
scoundrel, we are going back home now, 
and I hope and pray to God that it may 
be my fortune to get my hands on you, 
that the world may be rid of such a 
brute." His face turned livid with rage. 
He shouted out to one of the nigger 
guards to shoot that man, meaning me; 
but the guard pointed his gun direct at 
Capt. Bruce Gibson, and would have killed 
him but for the order of one of the 
negro sergeants to put down his gun. 
By this time the line had passed Hallo- 
well, and Captain Gibson was saved. I 
never in all my life was so unstrung; my 
foolish temper had almost cost an inno- 
cent life — the life of my dearest friend. 
After this incident my temper was kept 
under control. This was the only con- 
versation I ever had with Hallowell. 
When he came into our prison pen I got 
out of his way. I hated the man with an 
insane hate for his treatment of Lieuten- 
ant Peake. After we learned that we 



123 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

were not to be exchanged we began to 
speculate as to what the Yanks would do 
to us, now they had taken us from under 
fire. The wildest talk that was ever heard 
was listened to on the transport that night. 
Lieut. Pete Akers said he was sure we 
were all to be slaughtered, and boots for 
General Foster and his staff made of our 
hides. Others said we were to be put to 
work on river and harbor fortifications; 
but Captain Hammack, of Kentucky, said 
a sentinel told him, confidentially, that we 
were to be slaughtered at Fort Pulaski, 
packed in salt, and fed to Foster's nig- 
gers to make them fight. At daylight on 
the morning after leaving Morris Island 
we arrived at Fort Pulaski's wharf. 
About 9 o'clock we were ordered to fall 
into line on deck. Then we were marched 
onto the fort wharf, lined up and 
searched. What few U. S. blankets our 
men had hid from the Morris Island 
search were taken from us, leaving a 
large majority of us with only the clothes 
we stood in. After this exercise we were 



124 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

marched into the fort casemates, on the 
north side of the fort. Here we found 
luxurious quarters, consisting of rough 
pine board bunks to hold four people — 
two on top, two below, — no stoves, no 
blankets, no comforts, but the hard, 
rough pine board bunks; no downy pil- 
lows; no good, thick, warm comforts; no 
washstands, no easy rockers. All was 
hard, rough pine board bunks, and some 
of our fellows had the temerity to openly 
complain of such winter quarters, and say 
ugly things of the best government, etc., 
etc., while others of us thanked God we 
had white troops as guards. Our first 
meal in Fort Pulaski was a feast fit for 
the gods. It consisted of excellent white 
bread, good fat meat, and a great big tin 
cup of delicious vegetable soup, with lots 
of grease in it. After getting settled in 
the fort, with splendid cisterns of good 
drinking water, we began to think our 
troubles and woes had ended. On the 
day after our arrival, Col. P. P. Brown, 
commandant of Fort Pulaski, colonel 



125 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

127th New York Volunteers, came into 
our prison quarters. We were drawn up 
in line, and he made a short speech. He 
said : " Gentlemen, you shall be treated, 
while in my custody, humanely. You 
who have friends within our lines with 
whom you can correspond may write 
them at once for money, clothing, and 
such other articles that will add to your 
comfort. I will do all for you I can do, 
consistent with my duty, to make you as 
comfortable as possible. Myself and my 
regiment have seen service in the field 
and know what is due a brave foe. I will 
make this the model military prison of the 
United States. I have already made 
requisition on headquarters for blankets 
and clothing for you, and full army 
rations, together with plenty of fuel. All 
I shall ask is that you obey orders for 
government of the prison, and such sani- 
tary rules as shall be issued by me." 

We began to believe this was a 
dream. For a few days we had good 
white bread and plenty of it — full army 

126 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

rations for a fact. But, alas, we were 
to be rudely awakened from this happy 
dream. Colonel Brown informed us his 
requisition had been ignored by Gen. J. 
G. Foster, commandant of the depart- 
ment, and he (Brown) was ordered to 
issue to us ten ounces of corn meal and 
one-half pint of onion pickle each twen- 
ty-four hours, as a ration, without salt, 
meat, grease, or vegetables. Ten ounces 
of corn meal, one-half pint of pickle — 
nothing more. No fuel but twelve sticks 
of pine cord wood for each division of 
twenty-eight men. The order, he said*, 
was peremptory, leaving him no discre- 
tion whatever, and he was powerless in 
the matter. It must be said of Colonel 
Brown and his officers that they were 
gentlemen, and when he made the promise 
to treat us humanely and kindly he in- 
tended to keep his promise to the letter. 
The officers and men of the 127th New 
York (our guards) never failed to show 
their disgust for General Foster and his 
brutal corn meal order. No one but a 



127 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

brute like Foster could have conceived 
such a ration to starve men. If the corn 
meal had been good we might have 
managed to live upon it and kept off the 
scurvy ; but the meal was rotten — filled 
with black weevil bugs and worms. The 
barrels were branded, '' Corn meal, kiln 

dried from Mills, 1861," showing 

by the brand and date on the barrels that 
it was four years old; condemned by the 
quartermaster as unfit food for nigger 
troops, but excellent diet for helpless Con- 
federate prisoners of war. The acid 
onion and cucumber pickle was given us, 
it was said, to prevent scurvy; but the 
fact is this : it was issued to create appe- 
tite and add misery to our hunger. To 
fully understand this ten-ounces-of-rot- 
ten-corn-meal-and-pickle order one must 
compare it with the United States Army 
regulation ration, which is one and one- 
quarter pounds ground corn — ground 
with peas — besides coffee, tea, sugar, 
bread, and meat. But our ration was 
simply ten ounces of rotten corn meal 

128 




COLONKI. J. E. CANTWELIv 
North Carolina 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

and one-half pint of acid onion and cu- 
cumber pickle, without salt or meat or 
grease, — save the worms and bugs in the 
meal, — and this was to sustain life. Af- 
ter picking out the lumps, bugs, and 
worms in this rotten corn meal there was 
not more than seven ounces of meal left 
fit for use. And here I claim Gen. J. G. 
Foster, by issuing us unsound corn meal, 
robbed us of what his humane govern- 
ment intended we should have. Some of 
my comrades say that about the ist of 
March, 1865, this corn meal ration was 
supplemented by four ounces of white 
bread. This may have been so, but this 
I do know : that six of us were not in the 
least benefited by the bread addition. We 
were locked up in a damp, cold cell in 
another part of the prison. Why, I will 
tell further on. Upon the corn-meal- 
pickle ration we lived for sixty-three days, 
our men suffering the torments of the 
lost. After we had been a few weeks at 
Fort Pulaski General Foster ordered that, 
for sanitary reasons, our number should 



129 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

be divided and part sent to him at Hilton 
Head. I have always, and do now, be- 
lieve that General Foster ordered part of 
our men sent to him at Hilton Head, his 
headquarters, that, like Nero, he could 
look on and enjoy the sufferings of his 
helpless victims starving to death. About 
December loth scurvy made its appear- 
ance in our prison amongst the weakest 
of the prisoners. Most every man in the 
prison was suffering more or less with 
dysentery, and a large majority were, 
from the starvation diet, unable to leave 
their bunks. It was a pitiable sight to 
see human beings being starved to death 
by a government claiming to be civilized, 
humane, and religious. 

Each man was his own cook. In the 
casemate of each division of prisoners 
there was a very large cook stove; each 
twenty-four hours twelve cord sticks of 
wood — pine — was issued to each twen- 
ty-eight men or division, as they were des- 
ignated. Every morning the corn meal 
was issued. The fires were started in the 



130 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

cook stoves but once each day — at noon 
— so that the prisoner who was not ready 
to cook his meal when the fire was started, 
ate it raw or let it alone until noon next 
day, when the fire would be again started. 
And bear in mind, my readers, it was rot- 
ten corn meal, without salt, meat, or 
grease to flavor it with. 

The drinking water was excellent, 
obtained from the fort cisterns. There 
was no fuel allowed us for fires during the 
day, yet some of our men would manage 
to get hold of a chunk of coal, and, with 
an old camp kettle, they constructed 
stoves, and kept the atmosphere just 
above the freezing point. We had no 
blankets to keep us warm at night, and 
our beds were hard pine boards with no 
soft sides. No idea can be formed of our 
condition while we remained at Fort Pu- 
laski. On Christmas day, 1864, the snow 
on the fort parade ground was four inches 
deep, and we prisoners of war had neither 
fire, blankets, nor clothing to shield us 
from the rigors of the winter weather. 



131 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Really, it seemed like the elements had 
joined hands with Stanton and Foster to 
destroy us. There can be no claim set up 
by the Federal authorities and General 
Foster, commanding Department of the 
South, that the ration given us was the 
best that could be done for us. If such 
claim is made, it is false, for I do know 
that the storehouse of the fort contained 
commissary stores going to waste, while 
we human beings were being starved to 
death. The treatment of our prisoners 
of war by General Foster, U. S. A., was 
the refinement of cruelty. God grant I 
may never be again subjected to such 
cruelty, nor witness such infamous bar- 
barity, as that inflicted upon the six hun- 
dred Confederate officers at Fort Pulaski. 
It was shocking to look upon these poor 
helpless prisoners of war, starved until 
they became walking skeletons ; and some 
of the six hundred were wounded men, 
whose wounds had not yet healed over. 
Why they were not exchanged with those 
at Hilton Head I do not know. Hunger 



132 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



drove our men to catching and eating 
dogs, cats, and rats. Now, when I can 
calmly think over the terrible ordeal, I 
wonder why we did not eat each other. 
How one man of the Immortal Six Hun- 
dred came out of Fort Pulaski and Hilton 
Head prisons alive is beyond the ken of 
man. God only knows. Our men became 
as expert as cats at catching rats. If a 
rodent poked his nose out of his hole 
some fellow would nab him like a cat. 
We had cleaned out all the cats about 
the fort but one. He was a pet of Colonel 
Brown's wife; she begged us not to dis- 
turb him, so Tom came in our prison per- 
fectly free from danger, although I must 
say that about Christmas day the temp- 
tation was very great to make a Christmas 
roast of Tom. We went through Christ- 
mas week dreaming and talking of the 
good things our people must have at 
home in Dixie, and we would wonder if 
our loved ones and comrades had any- 
thing to eat beyond their army rations. 
On the first day of January, 1865, the 

133 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

scurvy became prevalent in our prison. 
The doctor, whose name I can not remem- 
ber, did the best he could for us with 
the medicine General Foster's order al- 
lowed him to use in practice amongst 
the prisoners. He would often say, 
" Men, the medicines allowed me are not 
the proper remedies for scurvy, but I can 
get no other for you. I am doing all I 
can for you. On or about the 15th of 
January, 1865, our condition became so 
serious that Capt. J. Lewis Cantwell, of 
North Carolina, wrote a letter to some 
friends in relation to our treatment. If 
the letter ever reached Richmond I do 
not know. Below is a copy of the letter 
sent by Captain Cantwell : 

Fort Pulaski, Ga., February 6, 1865. 
Hon. George Davis^ 

Attorney-General C. S. A., 
Richmond, Va. 
My Dear Sir: 

Believing that it is not contraband and 
that the Federal authorities do not desire to 
conceal the facts, I write to you to state briefly 
the suffering and privation to which we are 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

subjected, and I challenge a denial. Since the 
1st day of January last our ration has been per 
day ten ounces of corn meal, about four ounces 
of wheat bread, salt, etc, and more pickles than 
we can eat ! And until very recently this, too, 
was the only diet for those of us who were 
sick. Three-fourths of our number are in 
consequence sick with scurvy, diarrhoea, and 
coughs, and supplies have not been allowed 
to reach such of us as had friends to send 
them, but were returned; and we are directed 
to apply to General Wessel at Washington, 
D. C, for permits to receive them. A num- 
ber of applications have been made, but as yet 
no reply has been received. I write request- 
ing that these facts be made known in the 
proper quarter. To our enemies I have no 
complaint to make. 

Very truly your friend, 
i John S. Cantwell, 

• Captain 3d N. C Inf., 

Prisoner of War. 

Our condition was almost beyond en- 
durance during the last days of January. 
Colonels De Gurney, Le Breton, Captain 
Cantwell, and others wrote Colonel 
Brown, commandant of the prison, a let- 
ter, which must have been sent to Gcn- 



135 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

eral Grover, commanding Savannah Dis- 
trict, who sent his medical director to in- 
spect our prison and report our condi- 
tion. Here is General Grover's letter to 
superior headquarters : 

Headquarters District of Savannah, 
Savannah, Ga., February 7, 1865. 
Assistant Adjutant-General, 

Headquarters Department of the South. 

My medical director yesterday inspected 
the condition of the Rebel prisoners confined 
at Fort Pulaski, and represents that they are 
in a condition of great suffering and exhaus- 
tion for want of sufficient food and clothing; 
also, that they have scurvy to considerable 
extent. He recommends, as a necessary sani- 
tary measure, that they be at once put on full 
prison rations and, also, that they be allowed 
to receive necessary articles of clothing from 
friends. I would respectfully endorse the 
surgeon's recommendations, and ask authority 
to take such steps as may be necessary to re- 
lieve actual sickness and suffering. 

C. Grover, 
Brev. Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 

(War Records, Vol. viii. Series ii, Serial 
121, p. 163.) 

136 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



No attention was paid by headquar- 
ters to this request of General Grover. 
The corn-meal-pickle diet went on, and 
we suffered. No blankets, no clothing 
was ever given us, — and I have been in- 
formed by Dr. Cherry, now of Virginia, 
that he was one of a committee who de- 
livered to Gen. J. G. Foster, under flag 
of truce, clothing and other articles for 
our comfort, which General Foster's flag 
of truce officers received and promised 
should be delivered to the prisoners at 
Fort Pulaski and Hilton Head, but which 
never were given us, but stolen by the 
men, I suppose, who received them for 
us under a flag of truce. General Foster, 
U. S. A., has much to be proud of in this 
transaction. I shall pass it without fur- 
ther comment. 

About the last days of January and 
during the month of February our suf- 
fering was most intense. Scurvy had 
strong hold on our men, and the doctor 
in charge of the prison was not allowed 
the proper medicine to combat the dread 

137 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

disease. I say again, it is strange that 
we did not eat each other. Nothing but 
the bayonets of the guards prevented it. 
The first dog meat used in our prison 
was the suggestion of Lieut. Dave N. 
Prewett, one of Morgan's famous cavalry, 
who by his persausive manner, decoyed 
inside of the dead hne a beautiful setter 
dog, property of one of the fort officers. 
When the dog crossed the dead line it was 
but a few moments before Prewitt had 
him inside the prison. In very short or- 
der the carcass of the dog was ready for 
the pan, in the shape of chops, roasts, 
and fries. After cooking the dog meat 
Prewitt invited some of his friends to the 
feast, I amongst them. The meat, to us 
starving men, was delicious. The next 
feast of dog meat was served by Lieut. 
Matt Hixon, Arkansas. There was a fine, 
large, fat pointer that often came into our 
prison, and Hixon concluded one day to 
slaughter this dog, which he did; and 
again we reveled in dog meat. We had 
steaks, roasts, and soup. The meat was 

^^8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

tender and white; but, reader, I do not 
commend dog meat as a daily food, but 
if you ever are so unfortunate as to be a 
prisoner of war in the hands of a Gen. 
J. G. Foster, Hving on retahation rations, 
you will find in your hunger that dog 
meat is most excellent, indeed. 

It is impossible to explain how we 
lived through the terrible ordeal of fire 
and starvation. Those were horrible 
days — days which most thoroughly con- 
vinced me that nothing but actual ex- 
periment can determine how much star- 
vation, hunger, and bad treatment a hu- 
man being can stand, especially if he was 
a prisoner of war in the hands of the 
Federal government during the years 
1861-65. When the wolf, hunger, takes 
hold of a man, all that is human in the 
man disappears. He will, in his hunger, 
eat anything. I most fully understand, 
after my personal experience, why those 
poor fellows on the late expedition to 
the North Pole did eat each other, and 
thought it no crime. No person knows 

139 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

what hunger is, what it really means, un- 
less they have had an experience in star- 
vation's grasp. The torture of starva- 
tion exceeds all other torture in inten- 
sity; it beats sheol itself. What can be 
greater torture to a man with the least 
heart than to suffer himself and see those 
he loves suffering about him, and he 
powerless to help them? It was sad, it 
was heart-breaking, to see the suffering 
of our men in the Fort Pulaski prison; 
suffering because Gen. J. G. Foster pre- 
ferred to take the word of Confederate 
deserters to the word of his own officers 
and men who, over their own signatures, 
wrote him they were not under fire, not 
in danger, but kindly and fairly treated 
by the Confederate authorities, both of- 
ficers and men, who guarded them. One 
of the very sad cases of the regime at 
Fort Pulaski prison comes vividly back 
to me now. Lieut. Billy Funk, 5th Regt., 
Stonewall Brigade, one of our number, 
was little more than a boy in years when 
he joined the Confederate Army in 1861. 



140 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

A gallant, brave boy, he was captured 
May 12, 1864, at the battle of Spottsyl- 
vania Court House, reaching Fort Dela- 
ware prison just in time to be selected 
as one of the six hundred to be turned 
over to the tender care of humane Gen. 
J. G. Foster, U. S. A. Upon Lieutenant 
Funk the rigors of retaliation worked 
very hard, and soon completely broke 
him down. But never a complaint es- 
caped his lips, and he bore his suffering 
like a hero. Lieut. Tom S. Doyle, a 
noble fellow. Funk's messmate and regi- 
mental comrade, with us all, did all we 
could do to help him and keep him alive, 
giving him part of our scanty corn meal 
ration and all the white bread given us, 
which was just two ounces. (This white 
bread was not added to our corn-meal- 
pickle ration until late in February.) In 
his suffering with dysentery and scurvy 
Funk lost heart and nerve, slowly starv- 
ing to death. One day I had the good 
fortune to catch a big fat cat. Capt. 
Thornton Hammack, 49th Ky. Regt., 



141 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

skinned the animal for me, and dressed 
it for the pan. In an old tin can I made 
soup of part of the cat for Funk, and, 
after threats and coaxing, I prevailed 
upon him to drink some of the soup. The 
effect upon him was magical. It revived 
him in spirits and for a time counteracted 
the effects of the scurvy. As long as I 
could get him rat and cat meat he showed 
signs of improvement; but the cats gave 
out, and the rats I could not catch. I 
had not the wealth to purchase them from 
the fellows who could, so poor Billy 
Funk relapsed back into his former con- 
dition. He never rallied, and died, short- 
ly after our return to Fort Delaware 
prison, in the arms of his mother who 
was allowed to see him an hour or two 
before his death. Poor, dear Billy Funk ! 
Methinks I can see your sad face now, 
and hear your gentle voice in prayer to 
God for relief denied you by your fellow 
man. Lieutenant Funk's remains now 
rest in Mount Hebron Cemetery — hal- 
lowed grounds — in Winchester, Va., be- 



142 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

side the remains of his gallant brother, 
Col. Stover Funk, commanding the old 
Stonewall Brigade, who was mortally 
wounded, almost in sight of his home, 
near the close of the war. Billy Funk 
was a good Christian man. God bless 
the mothers of the South who gave such 
boys to the cause of right. 

We had not less than two hundred of 
our number at Fort Pulaski suffering with 
dysentery and scurvy. At one time many 
died and were buried in the graveyard of 
the fort. 

The officers and men of the 127th 
New York Volunteers were, from Colo- 
nel Brown down the line, clever, hu- 
mane men. They felt our condition and 
did whatever they dared to alleviate our 
suffering. The doctor in charge of our 
prison medical department was a kind- 
hearted man; I regret his name has gone 
from me, but his kindness to our suft'er- 
ing men will never be forgotten. Often, 
in these days of peace and plenty, the days 
of the ordeal of 1864-5 at Pulaski, comes 



143 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

back to me, and the kind face of that doc- 
tor, who did all that man could do for 
us with the medicines allowed for our use 
by that Christian soldier, Gen. J. G. Fos- 
ter, U. S. A. All the doctor had in his 
medicine chest for use in the prison was 
calomel pills, opium pills, salts, and 
Jamaica ginger, with a few other medi- 
cines the doctor would smuggle into the 
prison for the very sick. Had he been 
detected by Foster's spies in this act of 
humanity, he would have lost his com- 
mission, and possibly his liberty, for dis- 
obedience of orders. Language can not 
describe our condition during the last 
days at Fort Pulaski, on the corn meal 
and pickle diet. Words are inadequate 
to make the picture. No pen can draw 
the ghastly picture and horrors of those 
days and nights, when the United States 
government permitted Gen. J. G. Foster, 
U. S. A., to starve six hundred helpless 
Confederate prisoners of war, at Fort Pu- 
laski and Hilton Head. Edwin M. Stan- 
ton, Federal Secretary of War, gave the 

144 




MAJOR I.. CLARKE LEFTWITCH 
Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



orders; Gen. J. G. Foster executed them. 

The very idea of feeding human be- 
ings on ten ounces of corn meal and half 
a pint of acid pickles is revolting in it- 
self. But couple it with the fact that the 
meal was rotten, filled with worms, with- 
out salt, meat, or grease to flavor it, is 
almost beyond belief. Yet the proof is 
beyond question that this rotten corn 
meal and pickle was all the ration Gen. 
J. G. Foster, the humane modern Nero, 
gave us while held at Hilton Head and 
Fort Pulaski as prisoners of war. 

What was the result from this cruel 
order of retaliation ? Under the sands of 
Morris Island, Hilton Head, S. C., and 
in the swamp graveyard of Fort Pulaski, 
and buried under the swamp, are Confed- 
erate soldiers — prisoners of war — 
murdered by the cruel retaliation orders 
of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
and his chief executioner, Gen. J. G. Fos- 
ter, U. S. A. 

Over the graves of these grand Con- 
federate braves the bright stars of heaven 



145 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

keep vigil; the wild sea birds sing re- 
quiems to their rest, far away from 
their loved dead the hearts of many moth- 
ers mourn their boys, many a poor wife 
her husband, many a noble and sweet 
woman her soldier lover, who had left 
her and marched away to battle for the 
land he loved with her prayer — " God 
keep you and bless you, my darling '' — 
ringing in his ear, who found an un- 
marked but honored grave under the 
sands of Morris Island, Hilton Head, and 
in the swamps about Fort Pulaski; and 
these graves point heavenward, monu- 
ments to the vindictive and wanton 
cruelty of Stanton and Foster to the six 
hundred Confederate officers, victims of 
their hate. 

Col. P. P. Brown, I repeat, was a 
humane man. His soul revolted at the 
cruelty inflicted upon us by order of his 
superior officer, General Foster. Colonel 
Brown, we were informed by his officers, 
had asked General Foster, time and time 
again, to send him and his regiment to 

146 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

the front ; that they loathed their positions 
as jailors over helpless, starving men, 
over whose treatment they had no con- 
trol. We wrote Colonel Brown a petition 
on one occasion, asking him to come into 
our prison and see our actual condition. 
His reply was, " I can not come and see 
the suffering of my fellow man which I 
am completely powerless to modify or 
prevent. My requests for you have all 
been ignored by headquarters; I can do 
nothing to alleviate your condition." On 
Sunday inspection Colonel Brown and his 
staff would rush through our prison like 
they were glad to get away from the 
sight of cruelty presented to them. 

I want to say a few words for Colo- 
nel Brown's wife. One day, in a fit of 
desperation, I wrote Colonel Brown a 
note, asking him to grant me an inter- 
view. To my surprise, on the following 
day he granted it. A sergeant conducted 
me to his office quarters. The Colonel 
received me politely. I told him I had 
an uncle in St. Louis, St. Andrew Mur- 



147 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ray, who would gladly aid me with 
money if I were allowed to communicate 
with him. His reply was, '' Sir, I, per- 
sonally, would be glad to grant your re- 
quest; but I am sorry indeed I can not, 
under my orders, do so. I am powerless." 
For a few moments he left the office. The 
lady who had been present during the 
interview was Colonel Brown's wife. 
Turning to me she said, " Write your 
draft on your uncle; you shall have the 
money." I made the draft as she di- 
rected, and in due time received the 
money. This kind, noble lady, God bless 
her, gave me, as I left the office, a paper 
containing two large slices of bread, but- 
ter, and ham. I took them to my sick 
comrade, Billy Funk. I say again, God 
bless that noble woman ! May the Grand 
Master who implanted the Christian heart 
in her breast give her a crown in that 
better world of love and peace. 

There were lots of good fellows in 
the 127th New York Volunteers. They 
had been often under fire, and could ap- 

148 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

preciate the condition and feel for the 
prisoners of war. Often, when they 
were on duty about the prison some of 
them would put a loaf of bread or piece 
of meat on the end of their bayonets and 
dare any Rebel to take it off, always hold- 
ing their guns in such position that the 
meat or bread could be taken off by the 
prisoners. These men took this method 
of helping us and getting around the 
orders. They dare not openly disobey. 
There was one officer in this regiment 
who deserves well of every Fort Pulaski 
prisoner. He was Major Place, quarter- 
master of post. His kindness to the pris- 
oners will ever be remembered by us all 
of the Fort Pulaski detachment. On one 
occasion this kind hearted fellow took a 
lot of his men fishing with seines in the 
Savannah River about the fort. At 
night, after their return, Major Place 
gave Capt. Ed. Chambers, of Alabama, 
one of the prisoners, a barrel of the fish 
he and his men had caught during the 
day. " These," he said, " Captain Cham- 



149 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

bers, distribute to your sick men who 
can not get about." At another time he 
gave Captain Chambers a half-barrel of 
damaged coffee, which had been con- 
demned by the quartermaster department, 
and would have been thrown out. Some 
spy about the fort reported this matter 
to Major-General Foster, commanding 
department; an investigation was made, 
but nothing resulted from it to Major 
Place. No doubt had General Foster's 
investigation proved the giving of the 
coffee to the prisoners, Major Place 
would have lost his commission for his 
humanity to starving men. God bless 
you. Major Place! May you prosper in 
this world, and the world to come, for 
your goodness and humanity to our starv- 
ing men. Yours was the true Christian 
charity the Master taught. 

These six hundred Confederate offi- 
cers — prisoners of war — who went 
through the fearful ordeal of fire and 
starvation were a noble body of men. 
There were a few scallawags in our num- 

150 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ber, which is always the case in large or 
small bodies of men; but it is a proud 
record to present to the world, that, not- 
withstanding the ordeal of fire, starva- 
tion, and disease, there were but eighteen 
of the six hundred who faltered and 
took the oath of allegiance to the United 
States government, disgracing themselves, 
dishonoring their uniforms, leaving their 
comrades to suffer. What nation of the 
world can present a better record than 
this? And does it not prove the oft- 
repeated claim that the Confederate army 
was an army of heroes, whose hearts were 
as true and brave as ever beat in the 
breast of an Alexander, or a Ney ? What 
could be said that would be flattery of the 
five hundred and eighty-three men who 
kept the faith throughout the terrible or- 
deal ? No torture could wring from these 
men one whimper of pain, nor one regret 
that they had linked their fortunes with 
the cause of the South and followed her 
flag whither it led. These men were he- 
roes by nature's gift ; they were Southern 



151 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

men by birth, noblemen whose right to 
nobihty came from God. 

There is no place where the virtues 
and the vices, the true character of men, 
will so soon show itself, and so promi- 
nently, as it will when men are placed 
in the position as were these six hundred 
Confederate officers; the good or bad in 
a man's nature will rise to the surface 
like oil on water, do what he may to keep 
it down. And what a consolation it is 
to those who kept the faith, who now in 
the evening of life can recall that bitter 
past. They can tell it to their children 
without shame or regret, and thank God 
for the strength given them to bear the 
ordeal they were forced to undergo. Col. 
Abe Fulkerson, brave, generous, true, 
noble fellow, wrote me, just before his 
death : *' Murray, I always thank God, 
and I have never forgotten to do this, 
for His goodness and mercy in allowing 
me to be one of the Immortal Six Hun- 
dred who kept the faith unto the end." 
Shortly after receipt of this letter Colonel 



152 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Fulkerson was summoned to answer the 
roll call over the river. He is now resting 
under the trees in the camp of God's 
love. A braver or truer man never lived. 
Charles F. Crisp, Lieutenant loth Va. 
Regt. Inf., was one of the six hundred. 
After the war closed he became speaker 
of the United States Congress. Lieut. 
J. E. Cobb, 5th Texas, also became a 
member of Congress. Capt. Bruce Gib- 
son, 6th Va. Cav., a true, generous soul, 
whose ministration to his sick comrades 
of the six hundred made him loved and 
honored — he, too, has gone to rest. I 
recall, as I sit and write, the dreadful 
sights of misery in that Fort Pulaski 
prison — loved comrades starving to 
death, dying with that terrible disease 
scurvy, and the great government of the 
United States responsible for all this 
wanton cruelty; and yet no effort was 
made to alleviate or curtail it. Who of 
the six hundred will ever forget grand old 
Capt. John Lucas Cantwell, N. C. ? 
Gentle, kind, true ; never tiring of helping 



153 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

his sick comrades. Grand old hero, your 
name is engraved upon our hearts; we 
can bear testimony for you before the 
bar of God. Dear old Capt. Ed Cham- 
bers, have you passed to your reward? 
You carried out the command of the 
divine Master, '' love thy neighbor as 
thyself." Capt. Lewis Harman, 12th Va. 
Cav., generous with whatever he had. 
Lieut. Tom S. Doyle and Capt. J. L. 
Hempstead, doing all that men could do 
to better the condition of their sick com- 
rades. And Lieut. Peter B. Akers — 
dear old Pete, the soul of generosity, the 
most unselfish man I ever knew in all 
my life; never thinking of himself, al- 
ways doing for others. When it is God's 
pleasure to call dear old Pete over the 
line, I feel sure no crown in the kingdom 
of God's love will be brighter than that 
which will be given to P. B. Akers. All 
these dear old comrades were nature's 
noblemen; the leaven which God in His 
goodness gave to man, to lead him up to 
the higher life. As I gaze at the photo- 



154 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

graphs that hang upon my room walls I 
see that one of dear comrade Le Broten, 
of Louisiana, gentle, kind, suffering with- 
out a murmur. A soldier of the Confed- 
eracy, he could die for principle ; he would 
not surrender it. Then comes Capt. J. L. 
Hempstead, once during the war drill 
master of the 5th Va. Inft., Stonewall's 
Brigade ; gentle as a woman, brave as the 
lion, a courtly knight of the old school, 
his heart went out in sympathy to his 
suffering comrades, his generous hand re- 
lieved their wants from his scanty ration. 
Captain Hempstead was born in Iowa, of 
Virginian parentage. When the war toc- 
sin sounded he gave up home, loved ones, 
and comfort to help in the defense of Vir- 
ginia's honor. Capt. Will Page Carter, 
Page's Battery, a lovable comrade, kind 
and generous, a dignified gentleman. 
*' We can suffer, men, for principle ; we 
can not surrender without dishonor," I 
heard him say to those comrades about 
him who were not able to leave their 
bunks. I wish it were possible for me to 



155 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

recall all the noble spirits of that Im- 
mortal Six Hundred. Their names are 
written on Fame's scroll. God knows 
them; the world will honor them. Many 
of those dear comrades have joined the 
silent army. Their memory shall always 
have the warmest spot in my heart; my 
prayer is for God's choicest blessings upon 
them all who were true unto the end of 
the inhuman ordeal of retaliation inflicted 
upon us by Stanton and Foster, backed 
by the United States government. We 
who were true can speak of the com- 
radeship of love to each other. It was 
born in suffering, cemented by the bru- 
tality of a civilized government controlled 
by brutes. Men, as a rule, when suffer- 
ing, become selfish ; but this was not true 
of the majority of the six hundred. Of 
course, there were some selfish men in 
our number, but it can be truthfully said, 
take out from our number the seventeen 
scallawags who took the oath of alle- 
giance, surrendering their manhood, and 
there never was a grander lot of men 

^56 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

brought together than the Immortal Six 
Hundred. The efforts of one prisoner to 
reheve the other were subhme; it was 
grand. Captain CantweU's conception of 
a prison aid society was a true index of 
the man's heart. Below is a copy of the 
intention of the society, its constitution 
and membership: 

Relief Association of Fort Pulaski, 1864. 

Confederate States Officers' Prison Barracks, 
Fort Pulaski, Ga., December 13, 1864. 

At a called meeting of the Confederate 
States officers confined in these quarters, held 
at the quarters of Major Jones, Col. A. Ful- 
kerson was called to the chair and Capt. Jno. 
L. Cantwell requested to act as secretary. At 
the request of the chairman, Capt. H. C Dick- 
inson explained the objects of the meeting, to- 
wit, to be the formation of an association for 
the relief, etc., of the sick of our number, etc., 
and submitted the following preamble and 
constitution, which were, on motion, adopted: 

Whereas, It has been suggested that a 
number of our brother officers, confined with 
us as prisoners of war at Fort Pulaski, are 
deprived of some absolute necessaries of life, 

_ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

by reason of their inability to communicate 
with their homes and friends; and 

Whereas, Some of such officers, by rea- 
son of the diseases incident to prison life, 
are exposed to much suffering and in danger 
of neglect if left to the care of individuals, 
and 

Whereas, We recognize the binding ob- 
ligation on us, as Confederate officers, to 
search for and relieve the distress of all 
worthy officers and soldiers of our common 
country; now the more effectually to carry 
out our purpose we, whose names are signed 
to this paper, 

Do HEREBY ORGANIZE " The Confederate 
Relief Association," adopt the following con- 
stitution and by-laws for our government, and 
pledge ourselves, as individuals, from time to 
time, when called on by the proper officers of 
the " Association," to aid in sustaining it to 
the extent of our ability. 

Constitution. 

First Article. The officers of the Con- 
federate Relief Association shall consist of 
a president, a vice-president, a treasurer, a 
secretary, and an executive committee of one 
man from each of the five divisions into which 
we are at present formed. Each of these of- 



158 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ficers shall be elected viva voce, and shall con- 
tinue in office till a change in our situation 
or condition renders a new election neces- 
sary. 

Second Article. It shall be the duty of 
the president to convene this Association when 
in his opinion it may be necessary. He shall 
preside at all the meetings, shall call on the 
Association for contributions to the treasurer, 
and shall detail, upon the suggestion of either 
member of the executive committee, nurses 
for the sick, and where practicable may com- 
mand the medical services of any member 
of the society who may have been a phy- 
sician. 

Third Article. The vice-president shall 
preside during the absence or sickness of the 
president and is charged with the duty of as- 
sisting the president, as far as necessary, in 
all his duties. 

Fourth Article. The secretary shall keep 
a record of all the proceedings, including a 
balance sheet of weekly receipts and expen- 
ditures, and shall countersign all orders for 
the expenditure of money. 

Fifth Article. The treasurer shall re- 
ceive and keep all moneys of the Association 
with an account of the same, and shall pay 
such moneys upon the orders of either mem- 



159 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ber of the executive committee countersigned 
by the secretary. 

Sixth Article. The executive committee 
shall be the active body of this Association, 
it being expected that they will search out 
all cases of sickness or suffering in this prison 
or any Confederate hospital connected with it, 
and report the same to the president ; that they 
shall frequently meet on the call of the rank- 
ing officer of the committee to devise means 
for the aid and comfort of sick or suffering 
officers, and that when relief is necessary for 
any man in the division of either member of 
the said committee, he shall procure the same 
by a requisition upon the treasurer counter- 
signed by the secretary. 

The Association organized by electing 
the following officers: 

Col. A. Fulkerson, president; Major 
MacCreary, vice-president; Capt. H. C. Dick- 
inson, treasurer; Capt. J. L. Cantwell, secre- 
tary; and Capt. J. G. Knox, Major Jones, Cap- 
tain Ake, Captain Campbell, and Major Zeig- 
ler, as members of the executive committee 
from Divisions No. i, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respec- 
tively. 

On motion adjourned. 

John L. Cantwell^ Secretary. 



160 




IvIe;utenant pat hogan 

27th Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

A List of Members of Confederate Relief 
Association. 



A. Fulkerson 
H. C. Dickinson 
P. V. Batte 
M. R. Wilson 
S. P. Allensworth 
A. M. King 
Rodes Massie 
J. M. Surges 
H. S. Handerson 
W. J. Dumas 
T. H. Board 
John L. Cantwell 
John D. Ashton 
W. F. Leathers 
A. Dobyns 
J. W. A. Ford 
T. M. Hammack 
J. Ogden Murray 
F. Foussia 



M. G. Zeigler 
Wm. Barries 
D. A. Imes 
J. B. McCreary 
J. N. Chisholm 
R. L. Miller 
W. A. Martin 
John L. Lemon 
Jno. B. Fitzpatrick 
H. T. Coalter 
S. Lowe 
C. S. Lewis 
T. H. Harris 
G. C. Nast 
T. J. Doyle 
J. G. Brown 
Dr. F. Booton 
H. M. Dixon 



December 28th. 

The executive committee met and re- 
ported progress. The president reported col- 
lections made to amount of $11.00 and expen- 
ditures to amount of $11.00. The secretary 
was instructed to prepare an appeal to the 



161 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

prisoners for contributions to be placed in the 
hands of the executive committee. 
Adjourned. 

J. L. Cantwell^ Secretary. 

Hilton Head, S. C, November 24, 1864. 
Capt. John L. Cantwell^ 

Dear Sir: — Agreeable to promise, I em- 
brace this opportunity of writing you a few 
lines to inform you of our safe arrival at this 
place, all well. We arrived about seven 
o'clock the evening of the day we left Fort 
Pulaski. We are camped about one mile from 
the town, three in a tent — the same tents 
we lived in at Morris Island. Lieutenants 
Henderson, Merchant, and myself are together. 
Since we have been here we have had a very 
disagreeable time. The weather has been 
quite cold — we had ice last night and night 
before from a half to one inch thick. You 
would be amused to see our chimney which 
we have erected to our tent. The material 
is sand and grass. We had a fire in it last 
night for the first time, and made our tent 
comfortable, notwithstanding it smoked some. 
Built it higher this morning and hope it 
will draw better. No news of interest. Give 
my very best respects to Captains MacRae and 
Cowan, Lieutenants Gurganns, Henderson, and 
Childs and all enquiring friends. My address 

162 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

is Hilton Head, S. C, 3d Division. Hoping 
this may reach you safe and find you in good 
health, I remain 

Yours very respectfully, 

George M. Crasson, 

Prisoner of War. 

This was one of the letters that came 
to Fort Pulaski from Hilton Head after 
part of our number had been sent to that 
place. 

The incidents of the Fort Pulaski 
prison are written from memory; many 
have been forgotten. One thing that of- 
ten impressed me was the heroic conduct 
of our men under the ordeal. Before 
taps, every night, some of our comrades 
would get together in one of the case- 
mates of the prison and sing the old fa- 
miliar songs of the South, seeming for 
the time to forget the pains of retaliation 
and their hunger. Some day I hope some 
of the noble six hundred will group to- 
gether the incidents as they come to them, 
and put them in shape for preservation — 
the amusing with the pathetic, for they 

163 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

are all worth the keeping, and help to tell 
the story of those brave and true men. 

One incident comes to me just now. 
One very cold day while standing by the 
cooking stove awaiting the building of the 
fire, I noticed a Georgia captain, of our 
party, picking from his ration of meal the 
lumps, bugs, and worms. I said, '' Cap- 
tain, why do you throw your corn meal 
away?" " I am not throwing it away," 
he replied, '' I am picking out the bugs, 
worms, and filth." '' Why, man," I said, 
'' the bugs and worms are the meat in- 
tended for you, and will help to give 
taste to the meal." '' That's so," he said, 
and quit the work. We had one or two 
opium eaters in our party, made so by the 
medicine furnished by order of General 
Foster. It was heartrending to see these 
poor, dear fellows begging for opium pills 
from the doctor, when sick call was 
made. It may have been wrong in me 
to do so, yet, when I saw their suffering 
for the drug, I would go to the doctor and 
get him to give me pills, which I would 

164 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

give to these grand men, made beasts 
by the cruelty of the United States gov- 
ernment. One of the poor fellows died 
and was buried — Lieutenant Fitzgerald, 
C S. N. 

All matter personal to myself, so 
far as possible, has been left out of this 
history with the narration of the attempt 
of some of us to escape from Fort Pu- 
laski, and letters from comrades. The 
story of Hilton Head prison is told with 
this story of those who did escape. 

Christmas eve night, December 24, 
1864, was one of the coldest nights, I 
think, we had to endure while at Fort 
Pulaski prison. I was lying in my bunk, 
praying that God w^ould let me go to 
sleep and never awake in life. Yes, I 
was begging God to let me die and end 
my torture. I was cold and hungry, no 
blanket to cover me, no fire to warm me. 
As I turned over in my bunk, to warm 
the side of my body exposed to the cold, 
one of the boards fell from the bunk, and 
I got out to replace it, that I might lie 

_ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

down. In fixing the board in its place, 
by the dim light of the prison lamp, I 
saw beneath my bunk a trap door. For a 
few moments I felt dazed and really be- 
lieved I was but dreaming. After a lit- 
tle while I gathered my wits, and this 
thought came to me : '' Providence has 
answered your prayer; through this door 
you can reach liberty." Little sleep came 
to me after this discovery. I laid all sorts 
of plans, only to brush them aside. At 
daylight I awoke my comrade, Dave 
Prewitt, of Kentucky, and communicated 
to him my discovery. I can, in my mind, 
recall the look of pity Prewitt gave me 
after he had heard my story. It was a 
look that plainly said, " Poor Murray, 
he's gone; the cruelty was too much for 
him." But when he saw the door, like 
myself he concluded Providence made it 
especially for our escape. We sat on the 
side of my bunk guarding our secret as 
though it was a gem. We made plans, we 
rejected them, and we finally concluded 
to find out the construction plan of the 



i66 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

fort before we moved. Capt. Ed. Cham- 
bers, of Alabama, one of our number, had 
some experience in building forts. After 
pledging him to secrecy, we unfolded to 
him our find, and the first reply he made 
to our inquiry threw upon us hogsheads 
of cold water. " Why, boys," he said, 
" this fort's foundation is no doubt a lot 
of large blocks of granite which you could 
not cut through in forty years if you had 
all the improved tools necessary for the 
purpose. And yet, it may be," he added, 
" the foundation is built of hard brick, 
set in cement. The door under your bunk 
goes down into an air chamber built for 
the purpose of keeping these casemate 
floors dry. One chamber does not con- 
nect with the other by any opening. 
These chambers are fifteen or twenty 
feet square and are built all under this 
fort. If you boys go down you will find 
yourselves in ten feet of water and mud 
that has oozed in from the moat ; so take 
my advice and give up the project. It 
will not work." When we finished this 



167 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

interview with Captain Chambers our 
hearts were way down below zero. For 
a few hours we brooded over the matter 
saying very little of it to each other. De- 
cember 25th, Prewitt and myself sat on 
the side of my bunk, talking of the good 
fat turkeys and luscious hams they were 
eating at his home in Kentucky, and how 
we could enjoy just the turkey bones, if 
we had them, when suddenly Prewitt 
turned to me and said, " Ogden, let's try 
and get to where those turkeys and good 
things are; let's go down through that 
trapdoor and find a way out of this hole." 
It was all done in a moment. Down in 
that hole we went, up to our armpits in 
water and mud; and the coldest water I 
ever dropped into. We groped about in 
the dark, feeling our way around the wall, 
but could find no opening. We did, how- 
ever, find out that the foundation was 
brick, set in cement good and hard. Af- 
ter this discovery we found also that the 
wall at the water line was much wider 
than it was next to the floor. We got 

168 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

out by Prewitt getting on my shoulders 
and pulling himself out by the floor ; then 
he pulled me out. Prewitt had two pair 
of pants, and part of an old blanket. He 
put on the pants and loaned me the 
blanket to keep me from freezing while 
my pants dried. I do positively believe I 
had to tell my comrades six million lies 
about how I fell down in one of the cis- 
terns that some one left open. We gave 
Captain Chambers full details of our ex- 
ploration below, but his advice was to 
stop our foolishness before we took cold 
and died. While talking to Chambers, he 
said : ** If you had a good hard saw to 
cut out the cement, and a bar to pry out 
the bricks you might, in months of hard 
work, cut from one air chamber to the 
other until you cut outside of the guard 
line," — but this was doubtful. Well, this 
settled it, and we determined to cut that 
wall. We got hold of an eigh teen-inch 
stove poker; Prewitt had an old dinner 
knife of which we made a saw; Billy 
Funk agreed to watch for the coming of 

1^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

the guard or officer of the day, and that 
night, December 25, 1864, we began what 
seemed to be a hopeless task. After taps, 
every night for a week, Lieutenant Funk 
would take up his position on my bunk, 
and if anything moved he notified us by 
knocking on the floor with his heels. We 
would then stop work until he gave the 
signal all was well. We worked on for 
one week, getting out but few bricks. We 
finally concluded to take into our confi- 
dence some help, so we organized a work- 
ing party of Capt. W. W. Griffin, ist 
Maryland Battery, C. S. A. ; Captain 
Kent, Georgia; Lieutenant W. H. Chew, 
Georgia; Lieut. Hugh Dunlap, Tennes- 
see; and Capt. Ed. Chambers, Alabama, 
with Prewitt and myself. One night a 
fellow named Gillispie caught Prewitt 
coming out of the trapdoor, so we took 
him in with us to keep him quiet. Every 
night we would go down in pairs to work 
on the wall. Our only tools were the 
case knife, made into a saw, and the eigh- 
teen-inch fire poker. We worked waist- 

170 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

deep in water from the 25th of Decem- 
ber, 1864, to February 28, 1865. We 
never missed one night, and our efforts 
were finally rewarded. We had cut 
through forty-two brick walls that were 
eight feet thick, making a cut through 
just 336 feet of solid brick walls, with 
that old case knife and poker. At last we 
were done and fixed upon the night of 
February 28, 1865 (which was Saturday 
night), to say good bye to our Yankee 
captors. So silently had we worked, so 
guarded was our secret, that not one of 
the prisoners outside of Lieut. Billy 
Funk knew we were at work on the tun- 
nel of escape. By saving an ounce or 
two of corn meal each day, from our 
rations, we had considerable pone to sus- 
tain us until we could cross over the 
Savannah River and find friends from 
whom we could obtain food. At 11 p. 
m., February 28, 1865, we began our 
exit. Captain Griffin was the first man 
below. Lieutenant Chew followed, then 
Captain Kent, then Dunlap, Gillispie, 



171 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Prewitt, then myself. When we had all 
gotten below, Captain Chambers could 
not, he said, get through the trap door, 
so we left him. Poor Lieut. Billy Funk 
cried and pleaded to be taken with us, 
but the poor fellow was unable to get out 
of the bunk, practically dead with scurvy. 
We chose the night of February 28th to 
make the move to escape, first, because 
the tunnel in the walls was finished; sec- 
ond, because General Mollineux, 157th 
N. Y. Vols., came this night with his com- 
mand, to relieve the 127th New York 
and, in the confusion of transfer, we 
thought our chances would be better for 
success. The night was dark, and a driz- 
zling rain was falling. All went well with 
us through the tunnel until we reached the 
trapdoor in the casemate at the end of 
our tunnel, which we were to ascend 
through to the casemate above. When 
we attempted to remove the door we 
found, to our consternation, that it was 
weighted down by some very heavy 
weight. It was a dilemma we had not 



172 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

counted on. We knew we could not cut 
through another wall by daylight, so we 
concluded to force up that door at all 
risks. Four or five of us got under it, 
pushing with our hands and heads until 
Dave Prewitt could get the poker under 
the edge of the door. When he pried 
down on the poker he started the heavy 
body on the door to moving. Well, I 
have heard the artillery of Jackson in 
the Valley; I heard the roar of the guns 
at Gettysburg ; I have heard the heavenly 
thunders of the Rocky Mountains; but I 
say to you, all these sounds combined were 
but pop-gun reports when compared to 
the noise those barrels made above our 
heads rolling over the casemate floor ; and 
yet, strange as it may be, the noise did 
not disturb the slumbers of a whole com- 
pany of the 157th New York Volunteers, 
asleep in the very next casemate. After 
waiting for a time, to hear if the noise 
alarmed the sentinels about the fort, we 
began to ask each other, " Shall we go 
back or go on?" (We could not see each 



173 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

other's faces in the darkness, yet I feel 
confident they would have been a study 
for an artist's pencil.) The question was 
put to vote — majority said, " Let's go 
on." Hearing no one moving above, we 
pushed up the trapdoor and began the 
ascent to the casemate above. Lieut. W. 
H. Chew, of Georgia, being the smallest 
man in our party, we raised him upon our 
shoulders to the floor. He, with the help 
of our rope, made of old pieces of cloth- 
ing, blankets, and such material as we 
could from time to time get, pulled us 
up one by one. When we had all reached 
the casemate we had no trouble in getting 
out of the casemate window. Groping 
about the casemate in the darkness, we 
found an old army blanket. This, cut 
into strips, materially strengthened our 
rope. All being ready, we threw out 
our rope and began our exit from the 
fort porthole. I was delegated to remain 
and get rid of the rope. While the others 
were going down the rope I found an 
open barrel of brown sugar, ate bounti- 



174 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

fully of it, and filled my coat and pants 
pockets. I forgot, in my hungry greed- 
iness, that I would be compelled to swim 
through the waters of the moat to reach 
the bank. When Gillispie, the last man 
to leave the fort before me, slid down 
the rope into the water he made as much 
noise as a whale, and I believe now he 
was then doing his best to attract the at- 
tention of the sentinel. I saw him finally 
go over the moat bank. I then followed 
down the rope, landed safely in the water, 
and had reached the moat bank when, 
just as I started to climb up the bank, the 
midnight relief came in sight. I was 
compelled to roll back into the water 
and remain until the guard passed on. 
After getting over the bank into the 
swamp I found the boys awaiting my com- 
ing. But I want to relate that the moat 
water dissolved all my sugar and left 
me in a sticky condition. I had tugged 
at the rope, but could not get it to budge, 
so left it hanging out of the casemate 
window. As the night was dark and 



175 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

rainy the guards did not see it as they 
passed. 

Now that we were in the swamp, 
free from the prison, the problem pre- 
sented itself, how to get a boat to leave 
the island. Then came the question, who 
should go forward and overpower the 
sentinel over the boats at the wharf, 
where they were kept moored, constantly 
guarded. Lieutenant Chew suggested 
that we draw cattails. This was adopt- 
ed. Chew held the cuts, and the choice 
fell on Gillispie. He at once objected 
to going, on the ground that a smaller 
man could get through the swamp bet- 
ter than he. Not having time to discuss 
the philosophy of his objection, Prewitt 
said, " Come on, Murray. You and I 
will go ahead." Off we started, Prewitt 
in the lead, I next, and Captain Kent, of 
Georgia, close behind me, with Captain 
Griffin, Chew, and others following in 
our wake, some fifty feet behind, so as 
not to attract the sentinel. We came in 
sight of the wharf; against the horizon 

176 




MAJOR W. E. STEWART 
15th Arkansas 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

we could see the sentinel walking his 
beat. We stopped to arrange a plan of 
attack upon him. Prewitt was to move 
down on the right of the boats, I on the 
left, and Kent, direct from the point we 
halted. We started; everything was go- 
ing nicely, and in a very few minutes we 
would have had the sentinel, and the boats 
would have been ours. We were slowly 
getting nearer and nearer to the bridge 
upon which the sentinel walked, which 
was built upon piles about two feet above 
the water. Just as we were ready for the 
final move, out on the night air rang the 
voice of Gillispie, howling, " don't shoot ! 
don't shoot!" This, of course, alarmed 
the sentinel on the bridge; he fired his 
gun and called lustily for the sergeant 
of the guard; the fort was alarmed, the 
guards turned out, and our liberty was 
gone. In a few moments more we would 
have been sailing across the mouth of the 
Savannah River, free men, had not Gil- 
lispie howled out like a wolf. 

Prewitt and myself pulled ourselves 



177 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

under the bridge, and Kent was taken 
in by the guard, who came flocking to 
the reHef of the sentinel at the boat wharf. 
All were captured but Prewitt and my- 
self. We remained in the water under 
the bridge, and were not recaptured un- 
til daylight. The whole garrison of the 
fort was under arms; there was no pos- 
sible way for us now to escape. 

While we laid under the bridge we 
could hear the sentinel telling the ser- 
geant, " Why, I could have killed those 
fellows. I saw one on my right and one 
on my left, in the swamp, but thought 
they were alligators." Poor old fellow, 
whoever you were, on guard that night, 
walking your beat, you did not dream that 
there were three Rebels creeping towards 
you, determined on your capture. They 
were determined upon gaining their lib- 
erty. You stood between them and 
home. 

When we were taken into the fort 
this man Gillispie took the oath of alle- 
giance. Chew, Griffin, Kent, Dunlap, 

r^8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Prewitt, and myself were put in a dark 
cell; no dry clothing given us, and no 
fire allowed us, nor would Captain Sex- 
ton, the provost-marshal, allow us to have 
fire to dry our wet clothing. 

Why Gillispie betrayed us has always 
been a mystery to me. He worked just 
as hard as any one of our party to cut 
the tunnel through the walls, and ate 
his corn meal and pickle with us. I can 
only account for his conduct on the 
ground that when it came to killing the 
sentinel over the boats he thought, if the 
escape failed, we would all be shot; and 
this broke his nerve and made him shout 
as he did. Afterward, shame of his con- 
duct made him take the oath, that he 
would not be put in the cell with us. I 
never liked Gillispie. He was at heart 
a coward. I heard Lieut. Hugh Dunlap, 
of Tennessee, one of the most generous 
and kind men of our party, in a very 
gentle manner correct some statement 
Gillispie made about the Western army. 
Gillispie persisted in his statement. Lieu- 

179 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

tenant Dunlap arose from my bunk, where 
he was sitting, walked over to the fellow, 
shook his fist in his face, and said, '' Gil- 
lispie, you are a liar, and you knowingly 
utter your slander." Gillispie dare not 
resent this, and I never liked him after 
the incident. Some years ago I heard 
Gillispie was alive and lived in Texas. 
If he be dead or alive I do not care; in 
his going or coming I have no concern. 
I do know he betrayed us and increased 
our sufferings. If he can hide his 
treachery from the world, he can not hide 
it from his God. His sin will find him 
out. 

We were recaptured March i, 1865, 
and we remained in the dark cell, without 
fire or dry clothing, until the 4th day of 
March, when we were started on our way 
back to Fort Delaware. 

While we were confined in the dark 
cell we had a good deal of fun with Cap- 
tain Sexton, the provost-marshal. He 
had a lot of balls with chains brought up 
to the cell door, rattling them around, and 

180 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

saying in a loud tone of voice, '' I guess 
these will keep those Rebels from cutting 
walls. Sentinel, if you hear the least 
movement on the part of those fellows 
to break out of that cell, shoot them, and 
shoot to kill." He would come into our 
cell three and four times during the days 
we were confined, and volunteer the in- 
formation that our case had been tele- 
graphed to Washington city for advice; 
that in a few days we would all be tried 
and shot for destroying government prop- 
erty. He was always full of just such 
stuff as this. We would poke fun at him, 
telling him to hurry up the shooting. The 
day before we were put on the steamer 
to be sent back to Fort Delaware this 
man Sexton came into our cell and of- 
fered, if we would tell him who cut the 
walls first, who organized the party and 
plan to escape, he would let us go back 
into the regular prison and give us dry 
clothing. We told him if he would go 
and bring us in a good drink of whisky 
for each man, as we would not try the 
— 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

same plan again, we would tell him all 
about it. To our surprise, he brought in 
the whisky. We told him all about the 
scheme and plan, but he did not give us 
the dry clothing nor put us back in the 
regular prison. The irons that had been 
put on Prewitt and myself were taken 
off our hands and legs. 

Early on the morning of March 4, 
1865, Captain Sexton, with a guard, 
came to our cell, opened the door, and 
ordered us to fall into line. We marched 
down to the fort wharf, where we found 
the small steamer '' Ashland " with the 
other prisoners (our comrades) on board. 
We were placed in the forward part of 
the ship's deck, and I heard Sexton tell 
the captain of the guard, " I hardly think 
it necessary to iron these fellows. They 
won't jump overboard, but they need 
close watching." Late in the afternoon, 
on March 4th, we steamed away from 
Fort Pulaski for Hilton Head, S. C. Af- 
ter some delay and protest by the officers 
of the guard (157th New York Volun- 

182 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

teers) to going to sea in such a small 
steamer as the *' Ashland," overcrowded, 
we were transferred to the large ocean 
steamer " Illinois," and put out to sea. 
*' Grape " was rife amongst the prisoners. 
The Yankees said we were to be ex- 
changed at Fortress Monroe, and sent 
from there up the river to Richmond. I 
do not think our fellows took any stock 
in the "' grape " of exchange. Most of 
them were in such physical condition that 
they did not care what became of them. 

On the sail back to Fort Delaware 
the officers and men of the 157th New 
York Volunteers gave us all the liberty 
of the ship we wanted; allowed us on 
deck, and to have staterooms if we could 
pay for them; and gave us good rations. 
They were soldiers, not brutes like Stan- 
ton and Foster. These men had been in 
the field. After a sail of several days we 
anchored in the harbor of Norfolk. Here 
Captains Leon Jestremeska, of Louisiana, 
and Du Preist, of Virginia, made their 
escape, account of which will be found 

^3 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

in this work. While we lay in the James 
River the Norfolk people learned of it. 
They flocked down on the wharf, wav- 
ing handkerchiefs and cheering us. While 
we were in Norfolk Harbor one of the 
officers of the 157th New York Volun- 
teers told us we would not be exchanged. 
*' Just what is to be done with you I do 
not know," he said, " but I do not think 
you will be exchanged. You may all be 
placed in the hospital." 

Later on, another one of the 157th 
New York officers said, positively, we 
were to be exchanged and would be home 
in a day or two. Believing this story to 
be true, I really did not think it worth 
while to escape from the boat, and Prewitt 
and myself abandoned a plan we had 
made to leave the ship. 

After laying in the harbor for some 
time, our ship steamed out to sea. No- 
body was allowed on deck; all must go 
below and stay there. This order was 
strictly enforced by the guard until we 
were well out at sea. 



184 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



It soon became the general belief 
amongst the prisoners that we were go- 
ing back to corn meal and pickle retalia- 
tion on Morris Island. Lieutenant 
Maury, one of our number, an old naval 
officer and familiar with the ocean, gave 
it as his opinion, from what he could see 
of the stars, that the ship was steaming 
south. This helped to confirm our be- 
lief that we were not done with the re- 
taliation measures of Stanton. The 
anxiety and suspense became so intense 
amongst the prisoners that Col. Van 
Manning called the captain in charge of 
our guard and asked him to tell him 
candidly where we were going. The cap- 
tain said very frankly that General Lee 
had begim an attack on Fort Steadman, 
in General Grant's front, the morning of 
our arrival at Fortress Monroe, and he 
(the captain of the guard) had orders to 
deliver us at Fort Delaware; that no 
more exchange of prisoners would be 
made. 

It was the most dejected and broken 

^8^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

lot of men on earth when this news came 
to us, yet we said one to the other, 
" Fort Delaware is far better than Fort 
Pulaski and its corn-meal-and-pickle 
ration." At night we pulled out of Nor- 
folk Harbor; on the morning of the fol- 
lowing day we were landed on the wharf 
of Fort Delaware, and turned again into 
the old prison pen from which we had 
been taken eight months before. On the 
voyage from Fortress Monroe to Fort 
Delaware two of our number died and 
were buried in the ocean, — dumped over- 
board, their bodies sewed in canvas bags. 
These poor fellows could have been kept 
until we landed, as we were but an hour 
or two's sail from Fort Delaware. 

We had not been in our old quarters 
one moment before we were compelled to 
relate to our comrades the story of our 
hardships and the inhuman cruelty in- 
flicted upon us at Morris Island and the 
other points of our imprisonment. Our 
comrades at Fort Delaware had greatly 
increased in numbers during our absence ; 

^86 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

they all seemed to be in good health, and 
had good clothes, which made the con- 
trast between our haggard, ragged, ema- 
ciated crowd very perceptible. Our com- 
rades brought out their stores of pro- 
visions and extra clothing, giving us 
freely all they could spare. What a grand 
chance the United States Sanitary Com- 
mission missed in not having a photo- 
graph made of the survivors of Secretary 
Stanton's brutality. What a grand con- 
trast our photo would have made with 
those photos alleged to have been made 
at Andersonville and other Southern 
prisons after the surrender. It is a pity, 
indeed, those loyal souls who were ever 
anxious to stir the northern heart did 
not have taken, for distribution in the 
North, our photos. Our condition would 
have brought the blush of shame to every 
northern cheek, and made even Edwin 
M. Stanton turn pale at the sight of the 
victims of his brutality. We enjoyed the 
limited freedom of Fort Delaware. We 
were away from Colonel Hallowell and 

^8^ 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

his nigger guards; free now from their 
insolence. The prison life at Fort Dela- 
ware was broken in numerous ways by 
the diversity of the " law schools," 
" medical schools," and " divinity 
schools." Lieut. George W. Finley, now 
the reverend and eloquent D. D. of 
the Presbyterian Church of Virginia, 
began his study for the ministry in the 
prison of Fort Delaware, under Rev. Dr. 
Handy. 

There were in our prison gamblers, 
barbers, tailors, laundrymen, workers in 
rubber, and a minstrel troop, which gave 
performances in the mess hall of the 
prison when the commandant gave the 
permission. The proceeds from these 
shows went to relieve our sick comrades 
in the prison hospital. Sutler's checks 
was the currency of the prison, and these 
checks were taken at the mess house door 
for admission to the show. General 
Schoepf and his staff often attended these 
shows. Peter B. Aker as the tambourine, 

and J. Ogden Murray as bones, were the 
— 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

star performers of the show, with Capt. 
Ed. Chambers as the manager. 

Now spring had come and the fatal 
9th day of April had brought to us the 
news of the surrender of Gen. Robert E. 
Lee, at Appomattox. President Lincoln 
was assassinated. The end had come, and 
we were men without a country — sol- 
diers without a flag. We were broken 
indeed. Some days after General Lee's 
surrender the authorities at Washington 
ordered General Schoepf to ascertain 
how many of the prisoners at Fort Dela- 
ware prison would take the oath of alle- 
giance to the United States government. 
On first roll call about seven hundred 
of the fifteen hundred officers — prison- 
ers of war — gave their assent to " swal- 
low the yaller dorg " as we called taking 
the oath. We who refused to take the 
oath held an indignation meeting, pro- 
testing against the insult offered us by 
asking us to take the oath. Col. Van 
Manning, Maj. P. J. Otey, Colonel Fel- 
lows, and others spoke at this meeting 

189 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

against our comrades taking the oath, 
but it did no good in stemming the de- 
sire of our men to get home. They were 
worn out by prison cruelty, and General 
Lee had no army. The men pined for 
home and liberty. In a few days the 
roll was again called. At this call but 
two hundred of us were left who refused 
to take the oath, and at the third call 
there were but three of us left, out of the 
whole number, who declined to take the 
oath upon any condition. Shortly after 
these roll calls Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
surrendered his army. The Confederacy 
had now but Gen. Dick Taylor's army 
in the field, and he at last surrendered. 
About July 25, 1865, most of the pris- 
oners except the three who declined to 
take the oath, and the field officer prison- 
ers, were released and sent to their homes 
in the different States of the South. 
Finally all were released and sent home. 
We left sleeping in death at Fort 
Delaware some grand men, — murdered 
by the cruelty of prison life. Those who 



190 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

lived through the ordeal returned to their 
homes to find them in ruins. Desolation 
had spread its black wings over our be- 
loved South. The blue uniform of the 
Yankee soldier was to be seen every- 
where. Yet, at the sight of all this ruin 
and desolation, the men who followed 
Lee did not falter. They went to work 
to rebuild, upon the ruins of the old, new 
homes. They soon convinced the world 
that they were as good builders as they 
were fighters. The same old courage, 
obedience, and fortitude that made them 
the ideal soldiers of the world came to 
their aid. From the wreck and the ruin 
of war was built the Southland of to- 
day; and built upon the only capital the 
Confederate soldier had after the war 
was done — his honor and courage. In- 
deed was our land the land described 
by the poet priest of the South in his 
beautiful poem: 

Yes, give me the land that the battle's red 

blast 
Has flashed to the future the fame of the past ; 

191 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Yes, give me the land that hath legend and 

lay 
That tells of the memories of long vanished 

days; 

Yes, give me the land that hath story and song, 
Enshrining the strife of the right with the 

wrong. 
Yes, give me the land with a grave in each 

spot, 
And names in the graves that shall not be 

forgot, 

And the graves of the dead with the grass 

overgrown 
Will yet be the footstool in liberty's throne. 

Morristown, Tenn., April 25, 1898. 
My Dear Old Murray: — Your letter 
came to me safely, am delighted to hear from 
you again, and pleased beyond measure that 
you are getting ready to put in print the story 
of the Immortal Six Hundred. I can not, in 
my condition, help you much with the work. 
You know all the details of the trip much bet- 
ter than I. As you say^ the story can only be 
told from a personal experience of that which 
came under your observation. Write, Ogden, 
as you know it. If the story is not full in 
all details it will convey to the world an idea 



192 




CAPTAIN W. D. BALI.ANTINE 
5th Florida 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

of* the wanton cruelty inflicted upon us in 
that stockade pen on Morris Island, while un- 
der the fire of our own guns, and while we 
were on those starvation rations following our 
removal from Morris Island to Fort Pulaski 
and Hilton Head. I will aid you all I can. 

How I would love to see you, dear old 
Murray. You were always bright, never fal- 
tering, never bemoaning that the fates had 
cast us into that hell on earth. As I write 
I am wondering if time has made much change 
in you. Have the fates dealt out to you much 
sorrow, or given you much pleasure? You 
deserve well of the fates, and the love of 
your comrades of the Six Hundred. Generous, 
dear old fellow, come and see me here on 
the old farm (I call it the Rabbit Patch) ; 
come, that we may once more meet, that I can 
shake your hand and tell you my love for you 
has not grown less. 

I can see you, dear old fellow, sitting 
on that stage in the mess hall at Fort Dela- 
ware. I can hear your voice as you sing 
" The Little Groceryman'' ; I see you dancing 
and singing " Old Bob Ridley," to help your 
sick comrades in the prison hospital. 

My physical condition is not much, but 
my heart is as true, and my love as intense 
as ever for each one of that dear old Six 



193 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Hundred who kept the faith unto the end, as 
they did in those days of corn meal and pickle 
rations. We can never forget the dog meat, 
the cat and rat meat — the luxury of our starv- 
ing men. Print, in large black letters, the 
names of those fellows who took the oath. 
They made this roll of dishonor themselves; 
they elected to wear the badge of dishonor; 
why should we shield them now? 

Your letters are always welcome. They 
bring me sunshine. I have written my broth- 
er, Maj. Albert Akers, who lives in Washing- 
ton city, to hunt you up and meet you when 
he goes to Winchester. God bless you and 
bless yours. May He, in His mercy, permit 
us to meet once more on this side of the 
picket line of life. 

Affectionately your comrade, 

P. B. Akers. 



194 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



CHAPTER FOUR. 
Hilton Head Prison. 

ON the 27th day of October, 1864, when 
we had been but a few days at Fort 
Pulaski prison, Gen. J. G. Foster, 
commanding Department of the 
South, headquarters at Hilton Head, S. C., 
sent an order to send him two hundred of the 
prisoners of war confined at Fort Pulaski, Ga., 
this being necessary, said the surgeon's re- 
port of the fort, to preserve our health and 
better our condition. 

On the afternoon of October 21, 1864, 
two hundred and twenty of the six hundred 
were picked out of the number at Fort Pu- 
laski, put on board of the steamer " Can- 
nonicus," under guard of the 144th New York 
Volunteers, and sailed away to be the special 
guests of Gen. J. G. Foster, U. S. A., com- 
manding Department of the South. We were 
his guests for torture. He was the modern 
Nero, we his victims. We reached Hilton 
Head on Saturday afternoon and remained on 
the steamer until Sunday morning, when we 
were unloaded on the wharf, at Hilton Head, 
and marched under guard to a camp a mile 
in rear of Hilton Head village. The same 



195 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

old A-tents we used on Morris Island had 
been put up for our shelter. The first night 
in camp was very uncomfortable. The air was 
cold and crisp, we were not allowed fire, many 
of us were without blankets and had very 
light clothing, our beds was the bare sand, 
our discomforts more than tongue can tell. 
Monday morning came clear and cold. To 
keep ourselves warm we ran and jumped 
about inside of the dead line. We made no 
complaints. It was useless to complain to 
Nero Foster. With stolid indifference we 
took whatever came. We remained one week 
in this camp, suffering from cold and hun- 
ger. At the end of the week we were re- 
moved from the canvas city into a large log 
building in the town of Hilton Head. This 
log house was built and used by the United 
States government as a military prison for the 
Department of the South, to confine the white 
and negro Yankee deserters, oath-takers, mur- 
derers, thieves, and all the camp-following 
villains of the United States army. 

The rations for the first week of our so- 
journ at Hilton Head were first class. But 
after that week it was followed by the de- 
licious, the palatable, and strength destroying 
ration of ten ounces of rotten corn meal and 
one-half pint of cucumber and onion pickle, 

196 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

without salt or grease of any kind — all we 
got was rotten corn meal and pickle. It now 
began to dawn upon our minds that we were, 
sure enough, General Foster's victims. After 
ten days on the corn meal diet, our condition 
was horrible. Col. Van Manning made a per- 
sonal protest, against this cruelty and rations, 
to Colonel Gurney, the provost-marshal in 
charge of our prison, and made a written 
protest to General Foster; but the ration of 
corn meal was not changed, nor the cruelty 
of Foster in the least abated. If the Confed- 
erate government had been feeding prisoners 
of war in their prisons a corn meal and pickle 
diet there would have been no complaint from 
us. We knew our government was feeding 
Federal prisoners better rations than corn 
meal and acid pickle. We knew all prisoners 
of war in Confederate prisons were getting 
the same ration as the Confederate soldiers 
in the field received. It is a great pity that 
those artists of the North, who from their 
fertile brains created the pictures of the woe 
and suffering of the Yankee prisoners of war 
in the prisons of the South, let our Hilton 
Head prison escape their lurid pencils. What 
grand subjects of suffering they could have 
drawn from our condition in that prison. Yea, 
they would have found much to depict to their 



197 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

readers in the North, and much, indeed, to 
make them hide their heads in shame at the 
slanders they wrote against the South and 
our people. To misstate the facts, to slander 
the South, and villify President Davis, seemed 
to be, during the war of 1861-65, the only 
mission of the Yankee artist. It fired the 
Northern heart; it brought new recruits to 
the army of coercion. Those correspondents 
and artists did their work well. It was cruel 
work, but it brought them the blood money. 
What cared they for the truth? It would not 
pay them to tell it. 

It was a brutal mind that conceived the 
corn meal and pickle diet. It was the brutal 
hand of Foster that executed it upon helpless 
prisoners of war. On this diet of corn meal, 
with no meat or vegetables, scurvy soon came 
to add to our suffering, and acute dysentery 
was prevalent among our men. It took stout 
hearts to bear the burden put upon us. Many 
of our number physically gave way under 
the cruelty, but, in spite of it all, our men 
bore it with dignity and courage. 

We expected no favors — we asked none 
— of a government so cruel as was the United 
States government in 1861-65. The pangs 
of starvation became terrible; hunger drove 
our men to catching and eating dogs, cats, 

198 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

and rats. It was dainty food to starving men. 
When history records the true story of 
the great conflict of 1861-65, I wonder what 
the verdict of those who will read of the 
wanton cruelty of the United States govern- 
ment — inflicted upon its prisoners of war — 
will be. It was cowardly, it was cruel, it was 
brutal, and unjust before God and man. The 
official records show that Gen. J. G. Foster, 
U. S. A., commanding Department of the 
South, was the executioner for Secretary Stan- 
ton's cruel orders of retaliation, and these 
same records do not, and dare not, publish 
the corn-meal ration order. During those days 
of our torture a petition from the citizens of 
Indiana was presented in the United States 
Congress, by Senator Lane, asking the United 
States government to retaliate upon all Con- 
federate prisoners of war in the Federal pris- 
ons of the North; for the reason, the petition 
set forth, that the Confederate government was 
inhumanely treating Federal prisoners of war 
confined in Southern prisons. This whole pe- 
tition recited a bold, broad lie; a mean, de- 
liberate, mahcious slander on the brave peo- 
ple and government of the South. It was 
then a well known fact, and at this day proven 
beyond question, that the Confederate govern- 
ment was willing and anxious to exchange 



199 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

prisoners of war, but the powers at Washing- 
ton, and General U. S. Grant, refused to 
make exchange, and rejected all offers for ex- 
change made to them by the Confederate au- 
thorities. In fact, the United States authori- 
ties even refused to send transports and get 
their sick and wounded men — prisoners of 
war — that our government offered them at 
any time they would send transports. It 
further can be said, without fear of contra- 
diction, that, at the time this petition for re- 
taliation was before the United States Senate, 
President Lincoln and all his officials had full 
knowledge that the Confederate government 
was feeding to its prisoners of war the same 
rations the Confederate soldier received in 
the field. What more could our government 
do? What more could be demanded of them? 

The late Senator Sumner offered a sub- 
stitute for the Lane resolution of retaliation, 
which can be found in the United States Sen- 
ate Reports, 1864-65. It reads: 

" Be it resolved, That the treatment of 
" our officers and soldiers in Rebel prisons is 
" cruel, savage, and heartrending beyond all 
"precedent; that it is shocking to morals; that 
" it is an offence against human nature itself ; 
"that it adds new guilt to the great crime of 
" rebellion, and constitutes an example from 

200 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

' which history will turn with sorrow and 

* disgust. 

" Resolved, That any attempted imitation 

* of Rebel barbarism in the treatment of pris- 

* oners of war would be plainly impracticable 
' on account of its inconsistency with the 
' prevailing sentiment of humanity amongst 
'us; that it would be injurious at home, for 

* it would barbarize the whole community ; 
' that it would be utterly useless, for it would 

* not affect the cruel authors of the revolting 
'conduct which we are asked to overcome; 
'that it would be immoral, because it would 

* proceed from vengeance alone ; that it could 
' have no other result than to degrade the 
' national character and the national name, 
' and to bring down upon our country the 
' reprobation of history. And being thus im- 
' practicable, useless, immoral, and degrading, 
' it must be rejected as a measure of retalia- 
'tion, precisely as the barbarism of roasting 
' and eating prisoners of war is always ob- 
'jected to by civilized powers. 

" Resolved, That the United States, filled 
' with deepest grief and sorrow for her 
' cherished citizens who, as officers and sol- 
' diers, have become the victims of heaven- 
' defying outragers, hereby declare their 
' solemn determination to put an end to re- 

20I 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

" bellion, of which it is natural fruit ; that to 
" secure this end they pledge anew the best 
" energies and all the resources of the whole 
" people, and they call upon all to bear wit- 
" ness that they renounce all vengeance and 
" every evil example, and plant themselves on 
"the sacred landmarks of Christian civiHza- 
"tion under that God who is ever present 
" with every prisoner, and enables heroic souls 
"to suffer for their country." 

Of all the hyprocritical utterances, this 
is the worst. Certainly Mr. Senator Sumner 
knew that at the very moment he was de- 
nouncing retaliation against the Confederate 
government, his own government was tortur- 
ing, by starvation and wanton cruelty, at Hil- 
ton Head, S. C, and at Fort Pulaski, Ga., six 
hundred Confederate officers, prisoners of 
war. 

The laws of all nations say that pris- 
oners of war shall, and must, be treated fairly 
and humanely, and with strict justice. No 
earthly power can change this. It is the 
law of God, and the human power that vio- 
lates this law is guilty of murder. 

No excuse can be given by the apolo- 
gists for Mr. Stanton, who ordered the in- 
human treatment inflicted upon the Immortal 
Six Hundred Confederate prisoners of war 

2Q2 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

on Morris Island, at Fort Pulaski, and Hil- 
ton Head. The law of God was defied; the 
law of nations violated. History will judge 
the oflficials guilty of the crime, and the Con- 
federate prisoners of war, murdered by the 
cruelty of Stanton and Foster, will be the 
witnesses before the bar of God to condemn 
them. From the verdict of heaven there can 
be no appeal. 

The following order was posted in our 
prison : 

Provost-Marshal-'s Office^ 
Hilton Head, S. C., February 7, 1865. 
General: — The major-general command- 
ing the Department of the South directs me 
to inform you that the rations of the prisoners 
of war held in your department for retaliation 
(here was interlined some hieroglyphics) have 
been increased by four ounces of meat per 
diem and the addition of four ounces of po- 
tatoes. You will please give the necessary 
instruction to the officer in charge of the Rebel 
prisoners here, and in custody at Fort Pulaski, 
Ga. I am very respectfully 

Your obedient servant, 
Wm. Gurney^ 
Provost-Marshal-General, 
Lieut.-Col. 127th N. Y. Vols. 

203 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

This order brought joy to our hearts. 
We were starving. Four ounces of meat and 
four ounces of potatoes to be added to our 
corn meal diet! It would save us from death. 
We had been reduced by the corn meal until 
a majority of our number had a very slim 
hold on life. It gave us all new hope, in fact, 
a new lease on life. During all our bad 
treatment I never heard one of the six hun- 
dred who remained true to the end utter one 
complaint against the Richmond government. 
We all knew it was doing its best to make the 
Yankees treat us fairly and humanely. 

After our arrival at Hilton Head, as I 
stated before, our camp was near that of the 
144th New York Volunteers (our guard). We 
were hardly located before Captains Tom Per- 
kins and Campbell, with Colonel Folk, of North 
Carolina, and Lieutenants Killmartin, Brinkly, 
and John Casson organized a party and began 
<^ig&ing 3. tunnel in their tent to enable them 
to get outside of the guard line and escape. 
They worked day and night on the tunnel, 
and in two days they would have completed 
it; but the camp was moved into the barracks 
at Hilton Head, and their efforts came to 
naught. 

Capt. Tom Perkins was one of the most 
daring brave men I ever knew. He would 

204 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

take the most desperate chance to get away 
of any man in the prison. He was the most 
determined of men, yet to his comrades he was 
as gentle as a woman. He was a man posi- 
tively without fear, and the men associated 
with him in his plans to escape were just as 
brave as himself. After a few days in the 
log barracks, Perkins and a party set about 
planning to escape. With nothing but pen 
knives for tools these men succeeded in cut- 
ting through two of the thick logs that formed 
the floor of their cell. They finished their 
work, but concluded not to leave the prison 
until about the middle of November. On the 
night of November 20th, just after the clock 
at the provost-marshal's office struck ten, Colo- 
nel Folk, of North Carolina; Capt. Tom Per- 
kins, and Lieutenant Killmartin left their cell 
and safely passed the guard line of the prison. 
At midnight Captain Campbell, Lieutenant 
Casson, and Lieutenant Brinkly followed. Af- 
ter passing the guard line in safety, they came 
to the high fence surrounding the prison bar- 
racks, and all passed over the fence safely 
and began to flatter themselves they had now 
reached safety, ending all trouble. But they 
soon found their trouble had just begun. Right 
in the rear of our prison was a large work- 
shop in which convict prisoners of the United 



205 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

States Army were made to work. Our men 
went into this shop and out the back door, 
when they found themselves confronted with 
a second high board fence, and upon this 
fence was a parapet on which the sentinels 
on guard over the prison workshop walked. 
They eluded the guards, and had gotten safely 
over this fence and found themselves in a large 
field, when, to their surprise and consterna- 
tion, they discovered they had taken the wrong 
direction, and, before they were aware of it, 
they stumbled upon a sentinel. This compelled 
them to make a hasty retreat, which threw 
them further out of their course, and they 
landed in a large swamp, waist deep, in which 
they floundered some time before they found 
solid ground, and this they did by crawling 
on their hands and knees. They finally found 
themselves near Mitchellville, a negro settle- 
ment, a growth of the Yankees harboring 
runaway niggers. Covered as they were with 
mud, they passed boldly through this village, 
the negroes not being able to tell if our men 
wore the blue or gray. They made no stop 
in the village. Passing through the village 
safely, they turned, as they thought, towards 
the south. Daylight now began to approach 
and they looked about for a hiding place. 
They found one in a clump of large bushes 

206 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 



about one mile from the negro settlement. 
In this clump of bushes they remained all 
day without food or water, compelled to lie 
close to the ground to keep themselves from 
being seen by the soldiers and negroes con- 
stantly passing on the road which was 
within fifty feet of their hiding place. Had 
the negroes discovered them, not one man 
would have been left alive, so bitter was the 
hatred of the runaway niggers for the " Rebs." 
After the painful hours of the day had passed 
into night with her black robe thrown over 
the world, they started out in the dark to 
hunt the right road south. They had gone 
from their hiding place but a mile or two when 
they came onto a negro cabin. Being almost 
famished for water, they concluded to stop and 
ask for water. One of the party started for 
the cabin, but before he reached the door a 
negro woman came out with a bucket in her 
hand, leaving the door open behind her. In 
the light they saw a negro cavalry sergeant in 
the room. They at once retreated back into 
the road. They had not gone a mile from this 
cabin when they found they were on the out- 
skirts of a village, which proved to be Mitchell- 
ville. Again they retreated a mile or so back. 
Now hunger and thirst began to tell upon 
them, and they were compelled to stop for rest. 

207 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

They were completely broken down. They hid 
in some bushes and all fell asleep from exhaus- 
tion. When they awoke they were chilled, 
numbed, and in great pain, which made it 
difficult for them to walk. They, however, 
again took up the line of march, as they 
thought, to the south. They staggered on for 
some time, when they came in sight of a large 
building, which they concluded would afford 
them shelter, but, hearing the sentinel on picket 
calling " halt," they retreated back into the 
road, and laid down for a moment or two. 
Daylight was breaking, and they must again 
seek shelter. They saw in the distance a small 
clump of trees, and they made for it. From 
this shelter they could see soldiers and negroes 
passing up and down the road. Now a new 
trouble presented itself to them. Their wet 
clothing became heavy and uncomfortable. 
Hunger and thirst was wearing them out, and 
they dare not go out from their hiding, in 
daylight, to seek food. In looking into the 
haversack they found about a spoonful of wet 
corn meal for each man, and this was divided 
amongst them. When night came the boys 
again began their march. Captain Campbell, 
who was a scout of note, took up a position 
on the road, that he might ascertain by the 
travel in which direction the town lay. They 

208 




CAPTAIN I.OUIS HARMAN 
i2th Virginia Cavalry 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

had all gotten together and were about to 
start, when two cavalrymen galloped into 
sight. They laid down in the ditch alongside 
of the road. After these horsemen passed the 
boys fell in behind them, trusting to fate to 
discover to them the outer picket post towards 
Charleston. After a long tramp they dis- 
covered they were going in the wrong direc- 
tion, and were compelled to seek shelter in a 
swamp to keep from being picked up by a 
company of infantry coming towards them. 
After consultation in the swamp it was con- 
cluded best to await the coming of some lone 
person on the road, and go boldly out to him 
and ask for information. Again the morning 
light was coming, and they must seek shelter. 
They were too weak to walk far, so they just 
laid down in the swamp grass and soon fell 
asleep, and did not awake until late next day, 
when they found their limbs so swollen and 
numb they could hardly walk, and then only 
with great pain. Yet they had no idea of 
going back to prison. From their place of 
hiding in the swamp they saw a clump of 
timber. This they safely reached and in its 
shelter remained the day and night. Next 
morning, after they had reached the timber, 
Lieut. Hugh Brinkly was discovered by some 
negro wood choppers, who informed the white 

209 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

soldiers of the presence of a white man in the 
woods, dodging about amongst the trees. A 
large body of troops was thrown around the 
timber, from which escape was impossible, and 
our boys, broken down, weak, hungry, and 
thirsty, were recaptured and brought back to 
prison, — the human torture house. While our 
boys were in custody of the 144th New York 
Volunteers, who had captured them and treated 
them kindly, a Confederate deserter came up 
to ask about the capture. He was dressed in 
citizens' clothes. After looking at our boys 
for some moments this scoundrel pulled a pis- 
tol out of his belt and, pointing it at Captain 
Campbell's head, deliberately pulled the trig- 
ger, and would have killed Campbell but for 
the timely aid of one of the 144th New York, 
who knocked the pistol out of the fellow's 
hand. This fellow was acting as spy for the 
Western Yankee army, and had recognized 
Captain Campbell as one of the Wheeler 
scouts. 

After a march of a few miles our men 
were turned over to the provost-marshal and 
put back into close confinement in the bar- 
racks for a few days, when they were again 
released to the general prison. 

After a few days of rest the same party, 
with the addition of Captains Kitchen, of 

210 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

North Carolina; Dupreist, Lieutenants Akers, 
Oliver, and Sergeant Denham began another 
plan of escape. After the organization had 
been arranged, as a matter of prudence they 
concluded to start out a scout, let him get 
proper locations, and then return to the prison 
to report. Then the whole party should leave. 
This being arranged, one evening just after 
the five o'clock roll call of the prison was 
made, Captain Campbell, arrayed in the uni- 
form of a Yankee lieutenant, with Captain 
Perkins and Sergeant Denham in the uniform 
of privates (how they procured them no one 
has ever known), walked boldly out of the 
prison, passed the sentinel, and reached the 
outer guard about the prison before being 
halted. When the sentinel at the outer gate 
halted them Captain Campbell said, " I am 
Lieutenant Thomas, 22d New York Volun- 
teers. My men and myself got inside of your 
post line looking for the well." The guard 
saluted Campbell and they passed out the gate. 
While getting the proper direction our boys 
stumbled on some Yankee soldiers cooking 
supper. Captain Campbell saluted them, asked 
several questions, said good night, and started 
with his two comrades down the road. Now 
that this danger was past another problem pre- 
sented itself: how to pass the provost-mar- 



211 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

shal's office guard, and officers that would 
most likely be sitting on the porch at the 
office. The boys put on a bold front, walked 
slowly down the road past the office, saluted 
the guard and a group of officers sitting on 
the porch, they thinking Campbell was what 
his uniform made him look — a Yankee of- 
ficer of the newly arrived troops from the 
East. The boys went into the town of Hilton 
Head, mixed with the troops^ talked with the 
officers, learning all they could that would 
help them on their final trip. In the distance 
our men saw some old breastworks and told 
the officer who had pointed them out that they 
would run over and take a look at them. 
Saying good evening, they started for the 
breastworks; but before reaching them dark- 
ness overtook them, and before they knew it 
they walked into a lake of water. In their 
struggle to reach the shore they attracted 
the attention of the sentinel on duty, who 
challenged them and demanded one should 
advance and give the countersign or he would 
shoot. Captain Campbell told the sentinel to 
call the sergeant of the guard. The sentinel 
obeyed, and in a few moments the sergeant 
came up with a lantern. Seeing Captain 
Campbell in the uniform of a Yankee lieuten- 
ant, he saluted him and asked what was the 

212 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

matter. Campbell told the sergeant a story 
about his men wanting to look over the old 
breastworks and he gratified them by coming 
with them; but in the darkness they lost their 
way and walked into the lake. The sergeant 
listened attentively to Campbell's story, was 
convinced he was all right, piloted Campbell 
and his companions over the lake shore with- 
out going past the reserve guard. Before leav- 
ing prison Campbell had prepared himself and 
comrades a pass. This he showed the ser- 
geant, who grew very polite and insisted in 
putting the boys on the right road to camp. 
After the sergeant left our boys they pushed 
up the road and soon found themselves in Sea- 
brook; and all this due to the polite sergeant, 
who never suspected he was aiding Rebel 
prisoners of war to escape. While on their 
way to Seabrook they heard before them the 
gallop of horses, and hardly had time to con- 
ceal themselves before two cavalrymen dashed 
past, evidently couriers from Seabrook. After 
a consultation by our boys as to the next move 
to make, they concluded to try and capture 
some old darky to guide them into and about 
Seabrook, so they could locate the boats and 
sentinel over them. They had not gone down 
the road very far when it seemed like Provi- 
dence sent them the very man they were look- 

213 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

ing for in the person of a very gullible old 
darkey, credulous, like all his race. Campbell 
stopped him and introduced himself as Lieu- 
tenant Thomas, 22d New York Volunteers, the 
newly arrived regiment from the East. He 
then told the old darkey that if he could get 
them a good boat or show him (the Lieuten- 
ant) where a boat could be obtained in Sea- 
brook, they would take him to Pinkney Island, 
where they had buried a lot of fine whisky, 
part of which the darkey was to have for his 
trouble in getting the boat and helping to get 
the whisky over to the mainland. They told 
the old nigger he could sell his share of the 
whisky to the soldiers for five dollars per bot- 
tle. They impressed the old nigger with the 
necessity of silence, as the whisky had been 
smuggled from New York, and if the matter 
got to the ears of the General, they would 
all be shot and the nigger with them. He 
took in the story, and swore to be silent and 
true, get the boat and pilot the Lieutenant 
and his men over to the island and never say 
" nuffin to nobody, and git the boat hisself 
without any white man knowing 'bout it." 

Capt. Tom Perkins went into Seabrook 
with the old darkey, who showed him the 
wharf where the boats were moored, and 
pointed out the sentinel over them. He also 

214 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

showed Perkins how he (the darkey) could 
sHp under the bridge without the sentinel see- 
ing him. After Perkins had gotten all the in- 
formation he wanted out of the old nigger they 
returned to the point where they had left the 
lieutenant and man. Here our boys parted 
from their guide, with a solemn promise to 
meet them the next night at midnight at a 
point near Seabrook and then go for the 
whisky. The old nigger put them on the 
road to Hilton Head and went to his home in 
Seabrook to dream of the good whisky he was 
to get and sell the " Lincum sogers." 

On the way down the road Capt. Tom 
Perkins collapsed. The corn meal and pickle 
diet had broken him up. From the time the 
boys left prison they had walked over twen- 
ty miles. After a rest of an hour or so Per- 
kins revived, and our fellows started back to 
prison to communicate the information gained 
to their comrades. They got as near the prison 
as they could before daylight without dis- 
covery. They then hid until good daylight, 
then walked boldly into the Yankee guards' 
barracks, next to our prison, and from there 
passed over into the prison without being dis- 
covered. They had wonderful stories to tell 
us on their return to prison. They had been 
out of the barracks for over thirteen hours — 

215 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

never missed even by the sergeant who called 
the prison roll. But later in the day some 
spy in the prison communicated the story 
of the boys to the provost-marshal. He w^as 
dumbfounded as to how our boys got hold 
of the uniforms; it was real funny to see the 
agitation of the provost-marshal-general when 
he found he had been outwitted by the cun- 
ning of the " Reb." 

On January 20, 1865, Col. Van Manning 
received positive information from one of the 
guards that Lieut. J. W. Davis, 20th Va. Cav., 
was going to take the oath of allegiance and 
had made appHcation to take it and be re- 
leased. A meeting of prisoners was called 
to meet in Capt. Tom Perkins's cell, and a 
committee appointed to wait on Lieutenant 
Davis and invite him to come before the 
prisoners and refute, if he could, the charge 
Colonel Manning had made. Davis promptly 
accepted the committee's invitation, came be- 
fore the prisoners, and solemnly declared on 
honor that he had made no application to 
take the oath, and had never had such idea. 
When Colonel Manning read a copy of the 
application to him he broke down, admitted 
the truth, and became very defiant. Colonel 
Manning suggested to the meeting that, as 
Lieutenant Davis had premeditatedly intended 

216 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

to dishonor his uniform of the Confederate 
States Army and insult by such act his brother 
officers, prisoners of war, that the bars and 
buttons be cut from his coat, and his coat 
turned inside out, and that he be ostracized 
by his fellow prisoners. This suggestion was 
quickly carried out by Tom Perkins and Pete 
Akers. Colonel Manning suggested to Davis 
that he get the provost-marshal to remove him 
from the prison at once, as the prisoners were 
not in good temper to tolerate or overlook his 
insult to them by taking the oath. Like a 
whipped cur Davis ran and put himself under 
care of the guard, who soon had the fellow 
out of our prison. 

The following day, after Davis had been 
removed from the prison. Colonel Manning, 
Capt. Tom Perkins, Captain Kitchen, of North 
Carolina; Captain Campbell, Lieutenants P. 
B. Akers and John Casson, the committee that 
called the meeting and disgraced Davis, were 
taken from our barracks and locked up in a 
cell in the Yankee convict prison, where crim- 
inals of all sorts were confined, — men who 
had broken the laws of God and man. These 
refined gentlemen, Confederate officers, prison- 
ers of war, were locked up with criminals 
without the least investigation, by the provost- 
marshal, of the charges Davis made against 

217 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

them. These gentlemen were all put in one 
cell, not over three feet wide and six feet 
long, and there they were kept, in this cramped 
condition, for seven days and nights. From 
five o'clock in the afternoon until ten o'clock 
in the morning their cell door was closed and 
not allowed to be opened except by order of 
the provost-marshal. In this cell all the men 
could not lay down at once, comfortably, but 
by tight squeezing they could lay spoon fash- 
ion. In this cell was put each night a foul- 
smelling tub for sink purposes, and there it 
remained from five o'clock each evening until 
ten o'clock next morning before it was taken 
out. The cell floor was made of heavy pine 
logs, smoothed with the axe, from which the 
rough knots were not cut very close. They 
had no blankets, and the hard logs was not 
a downy bed. This cell had been occupied 
by some convict niggers, and was swarming 
with vermin, which accentuated discomfort and 
misery. Yet we hear much said about the tor- 
tures of Andersonville, by the Northern peo- 
ple. No such treatment was ever inflicted 
upon Union prisoners of war in any Confed- 
erate prison of the South. Just above the cell 
in which our comrades were confined was a 
room in which white and nigger convicts were 
confined. Daily they polluted the ears of our 

2l8 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

comrades with the vilest epithets such scoun- 
drels could utter about our Southern women. 
They even cut a hole through the floor and 
spit upon our men, and when the prison au- 
thorities were complained to about this in- 
dignity they simply smiled and made no ef- 
fort to stop it; they even rather encouraged 
these vile scoundrels in their meanness and 
insults to our helpless men. Davis, the de- 
serter, one day did worse than spit upon our 
men in the cell. Our men protested to the 
sergeant who had charge of the convict room, 
but he would take no notice of the protest. 
Finally the conduct of the convicts towards our 
men became so unbearable that Colonel Man- 
ning got the sergeant to ask Lieutenant 
Thompson, U. S. A., assistant provost-marshal, 
to come and see him, which he did. Our men 
protested against such insults as the convicts 
perpetrated upon them, but Thompson simply 
ordered the cell door closed, and paid no fur- 
ther attention to the protest, and this devilish 
torture went on. Finally the provost-marshal- 
general made a general inspection of the con- 
vict prison, with his assistant, Thompson. 
When the door of the cell in which our men 
were confined was opened Colonel Gurney 
asked Thompson why those Confederate pris- 
oners of war were confined in convict cells. 

219 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

I 

Thompson hesitated for a moment before he re- 
plied, and then lied by saying the men had 
formed a conspiracy to escape and murder the 
guard. Colonel Manning at once denounced 
Lieutenant Thompson as a liar, and his story 
as a mean, cowardly lie. When Colonel Gur- 
ney heard Colonel Manning's story, he ordered 
Thompson to instantly remove the prisoners 
from the filthy cells to a room on the floor 
above, w^here they were confined seventeen 
days, surrounded by the galvanized scoundrels 
— deserters who had taken the oath of alle- 
giance. This fellow, Thompson, inflicted upon 
Colonel Manning all the little mean indignities 
he dared without Colonel Gurney finding him 
out; and all this for the sole reason that Man- 
ning had proved and denounced Thompson a 
Har and coward. 

These brave men never allowed this fel- 
low to see how much he really made them 
suffer. They were that class of men referred 
to by Judah P. Benjamin who, when he left 
the United States Senate, said to the people 
of the North : " You may, with your immense 
armies, invade the South; sack our cities, 
towns, and villages; render homeless our wives 
and children; you may drive the black car of 
war throughout our land; but the subjugation 
of our people is impossible." 

220 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

The most fearful test a man can be put 
to is that of starvation. The corn-meal-pickle 
ration was this test; it was the trying ordeal 
of the manhood of those six hundred Confed- 
erate mortals. They stood the test. The 
seventeen who took the oath were the dross 
of the gold; they must wear their badge of 
dishonor; they can not rid themselves of it, 
they can not hide it. In the world's history 
these fellows will be classed as cowards ; in 
the glorious history of the Confederacy they 
will be written down as deserters, — none can 
defend them. Dear old Murray, let's say to- 
gether, " God bless those of the six hundred 
who remained true unto the end." Their story 
will be written on the scroll of fame; it will 
go down through all time. Generations will 
sing their praise and crown them martyrs to 
principle for their devotion and fidelity in 
those days of torture. 

P. B. A. 

ESCAPE FROM FEDERALS. 

I was Captain of Company H, loth 
Louisiana Regiment, Infantry, Stafford's Brig- 
ade, Edward Johnston's Division, Jackson's 
(afterwards Ewell's) Corps, of the Army of 
Northern Virginia. With three-fourths of the 
regiment, I was taken prisoner at the Bloody 

221 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

Angle, at the battle of Spottsylvania, May 12, 
1864. I was taken to Fort Delaware and was 
one of the six hundred Confederate officers 
picked out to be placed under the fire of the 
Confederate batteries on Morris Island, for 
alleged retaliation. 

These officers were embarked in August 
on the small transport " Crescent," where four 
men were allowed a space of four by six feet 
to lie in. We had been some nineteen days 
on this floating purgatory when we were land- 
ed on Morris Island, and marched ankle deep in 
sand for six miles to our place of confinement, 
a stockade that had been erected between the 
Union batteries Gregg and Wagner, where 
we remained for some six weeks, under the 
occasional fire of mortar batteries in Charles- 
ton and the premature explosions of shells 
fired from battery Wagner. As a refinement 
of cruelty, we were guarded by the 54th 
Massachusetts (negro) Regiment. Later, a 
part of the prisoners were sent to Port Royal 
for wintering and the rest to the damp case- 
mates of Fort Pulaski. I was with the latter. 

Early in March, 1865, it was reported 
that the six hundred were to be exchanged at 
a point on the James River, and they were 
reunited and embarked on the big transport 
" Illinois," which was already crowded with 

222 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

prisoners taken by Sherman at Savannah, some 
of whom were sick and wounded. In due time 
the vessel reached Norfolk, where orders were 
received to return the prisoners to Fort Dela- 
ware. This was sad news indeed to the six 
hundred, who hoped to be back in Dixie soon. 

The vessel put to sea and after dark I 
went on the upper deck for fresh air. I was 
soon approached by an Irishman, who was of 
the crew and was a Southern sympathizer. He 
said to me : " They're treating you like dogs. 
I'd get away if I were you." 

I replied to him that I would do so if 
he could show me how, and that I had al- 
ready made four fruitless attempts. He then 
told me that in the forward part of the deck, 
where I was quartered, I would find a hatch 
through which I could descend to the forepart 
of the hold, where the anchor chains and sail 
duck, ropes, etc., were stored. That if I con- 
cluded to make the attempt and would let him 
know, after a while — after the prisoners would 
be landed at Fort Delaware, the day follow- 
ing—he would bring me food for the trip 
to New York, where the transport was to go 
to take on supplies. That before reaching New 
York he would come down to supply me with 
clothes and to give me a few dollars. '* Then," 
he concluded, " if you're smart, you'll be able 

223 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

to get back South." I thanked him and told 
him that I would let him know as he sug- 
gested. Thereupon, I went down for a con- 
sultation with some friends. Three of them 
agreed to make the attempt with me. They 
were: Capt. Thomas F. Perkins, nth Tenn. 
Cav. ; Capt, Emmett E. DePriest, 23d Va. Inf., 
and Lieut. Cicero M. Allen (a Louisianian), 
2d Ark. Cav. We decided not to inform my 
Irish friend, for fear that by some indiscretion 
he might have our attempt revealed. We 
swapped clothes with other friends, gathered 
some crackers and canteens of water, some 
matches and candles, and arranged with some 
of the Georgians to personify us at roll calls, 
and, after bidding our friends good-bye and 
receiving their warm wishes for our success, 
we went down to the designated place of con- 
cealment. We fixed places to lie in with the 
aid of candle light, but soon afterwards Cap- 
tain Perkins, who had been suffering with 
flux, was violently seized with pains in the 
bowels and his ailment grew more pronounced, 
to an extent that caused us to insist upon his 
return to the deck above us and seek the 
assistance of the surgeon. The gallant fel- 
low urged his right to risk his life in the en- 
deavor, and that the responsibility rested 
wholly upon himself. We finally resolved 

224 




CAPTAIN J. W. MATHEWS 
25th Virginia 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

to inform him that we could not agree to 
his view and that we had rather abandon the 
attempt than witness his increasing sufferings 
and danger, and that we would proceed to do 
so. He then consented to be assisted up the 
hatch. We then fell into a sleep from which 
we awoke by the cessation of the vessel's roll- 
ing and pitching, and the rumblings above in- 
dicating that we were at Fort Delaware and 
that the prisoners were being landed. For 
several hours we lay upon the anxious bench, 
but when the vessel began to move once more 
we felt that our absence had not been observed 
and that we had only to fear a telegram to 
search the vessel on her arrival at New York. 
At times during the rest of the voyage we 
would light the candle for an instant, eat some 
crackers and go back to sleep. Finally we 
were awakened by the firing of a cannon and 
soon after the ship's motion told us that we 
were in New York harbor. We could hear 
the whistles of passing crafts, and when we 
felt it to be afternoon, we ascended to the deck 
above and sought refuge there in a dark cor- 
ner. After dusk one of the trio made a 
reconnoissance to the upper deck and reported 
the vessel to be fast to the pier with her stern 
swinging a few feet outward. We had been 
in the hold for more than three days and 

225 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

nights, and it was with joyful feehngs that we 
emerged upon the upper deck and in turn 
jumped to the wharf and walked rapidly into 
the city. We soon crossed Broadway and 
hastened to go down into a cellar saloon and 
eating place. We called for cocktails and had 
a substantial meal. We were in rags and 
looked like tramps. Fourteen dollars in green- 
backs was our aggregate wealth. We went to 
a cheap lodging house and got a room under 
assumed names. There we gazed at each other 
and rejoiced at being free men again. Allen 
had been a prisoner for fifteen months and 
DePriest and I ten months. It was then 
Sunday, March 13, 1865. 

The next day we found friends who gave 
us clothes and money. DePriest left us to go 
to Baltimore, where he expected to meet 
friends, and Allen and myself concluded to 
stay a few days longer to recuperate. 

At the end of the time we had set, we 
proceeded to Baltimore, thence to a place 
near Point of Rocks, on the Potomac, where 
we thought of entering Virginia and rejoining 
the Confederate forces. There news came that 
Richmond was about to be evacuated, and we 
felt that we would soon have Grant's army to 
elude to get to our friends. We decided to 
return to Baltimore. There our friends sup- 

226 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

plied us with funds and railroad tickets and 
we went on through to Louisville. Thence we 
took a steamer for Cairo. At Evansville can- 
nons were being fired, as we landed, announc- 
ing the surrender at Appomattox. A Union 
officer was addressing a large crowd that was 
rejoicing over what we regarded as dreadful 
news. At Cairo we got aboard another boat 
and went down to Memphis. Finding it dif- 
ficult to get out of the lines there we went 
back aboard, and on her trip up we were 
landed at Randolph, in West Tennessee, in 
the middle of the night. Thence we made our 
way safely to Meridian, Mississippi, and re- 
ported to Gen. Richard Taylor, whose army 
had retired to that place after the evacuation 
of Mobile. The General gave us thirty days' 
furlough almost on the eve of the surrender 
of his forces. 

Then we crossed the Mississippi with the 
intention of joining Kirby Smith's army in 
the rumored continuance of the war in the 
Trans-Mississippi country. But before the ex- 
piration of our furloughs that officer also 
surrendered. The war was over. 

Allen died at Lake Providence, La., not 
long after the war. Perkins, who became 
prominent in politics in Tennessee, died in the 

227 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

nineties. DePriest also died in the nineties, 
at Richmond. 

I had the good fortune of meeting Allen 
and Perkins at times after the war, but never 
had the satisfaction of meeting DePriest, from 
whom, however, I received several messages. 

Leon Jestremeska. 
Baton Rouge, La., December 26, 1904. 

Fernandina, Fla., January 18, 1905. 
Maj. J. Ogden Murray^ 

Winchester, Va. 
My Dear Comrade and Friend: 

When I go back to those days of the 
ordeal of starvation of the Six Hundred Im- 
mortals, and think of the ordeal we went 
through on Morris Island, Hilton Head, S. C, 
and Fort Pulaski, Ga., by order of Secretary 
Stanton, my heart grows bitter. 

I can never forget November 20, 1864, 
when two hundred and twenty of us were 
taken from the prison of Fort Pulaski and 
sent to Hilton Head. When we reached Hil- 
ton Head we were unloaded upon the wharf, 
then under guard marched through the town, 
and placed in a camp one mile in the rear of 
the village. Our shelter was the same old A- 
tents we had on Morris Island; we were sur- 
rounded by the same old 54th nigger troops; 

228 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

our ration two ounces of fat meat with a 
small quantity of hominy grits, most vilely 
cooked, and some beans. A few frying pans 
were given us, but were not sufficient for the 
camp use, so we had to let each mess have its 
turn with the frying pans. Our camp was lo- 
cated in a very exposed place. On the even- 
ing of November 29th we were moved from 
this bleak camp into barracks, built in the 
yard of the provost-marshal's office. The 
building was a large log structure of two 
stories, with hospital in the second story. The 
lower floor was built in cells, six by eight feet. 
A long pine board table was run down the 
room before our cells. This was our dining 
room, or mess hall. Between the table and 
our cells there was a space of two or three 
feet, and up and down, night and day, a 
sentinel with loaded gun paced. They would 
not allow us to close the cell doors; we had 
no blankets, the weather was cold, and there 
was no stove allowed in our quarters. On 
December 4th about forty or more of our 
party — the sick and wounded — were sent to 
Hilton Head, and exchanged. Time hung 
heavy on our hands at that place. We were 
allowed no exercise outside of our cells, and 
no incident that I can now recall occurred 
to break the monotony of the prison until 

229 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

December, when we were put on the rotten 
corn meal and pickle ration; ten ounces of 
rotten corn meal, one-half pint onion pickle 
— no grease, no salt, no meat of any kind. 
There were plenty of imprecations heaped upon 
the heads of those who ordered us such a 
ration, but there was no sign of a break in our 
ranks. 

A party composed of Captains Perkins, 
Jestremeska, and Casson and some others, 
cut a plank out of their cell floor and would 
have made their escape from the prison but 
for a Lieut. J. W. Davis, who betrayed them. 
This fellow took the oath of allegiance. Some 
of our party did get out of the prison, but 
were recaptured, brought back, and the whole 
lot crowded into a small cell, four by eight, 
which had been used to confine some nigger 
convicts. When it was discovered that this 
fellow, — Davis, — had betrayed the boys. Col. 
Van Manning and Lieut. Pete Akers cut the 
stripes from his collar and buttons from his 
coat, and literally kicked him out of prison 
before the guard could interfere to save him. 
This action on the part of our men got them 
into a cell in close confinement for many days. 
The corn meal diet was rough on our 
fellows, and scurvy got hold of us badly. One 
day I saw one of our men sitting very quietly 

230 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

in one corner of the room. Thinking he was 
sick, I went over to speak to him and do what- 
ever I could for his comfort. I found he had a 
long string in his hand, on which he had a fish- 
hook baited with a grain of corn. This he 
dropped through a chink in the floor. He 
was simply catching rats. For a while I 
thought the poor fellow was crazy, but when 
he yanked in a rat the problem of why he 
was quiet was solved. He caught rats and 
ate them to keep from starving. 

There was a fine large cat, that belonged 
to the provost-marshal's office^ that often came 
into our prison. One day this cat very mys- 
teriously disappeared; next day my mess had 
meat for dinner, and we invited some other 
fellows to dine with us. In February, 1865, our 
ration was increased by two ounces of meat 
and two ounces of potatoes; but it came too 
late to drive away scurvy. About this time 
Colonel Manning, Pete Akers, Tom Perkins, 
and the others were released from their close 
confinement. March 4, 1865, we were loaded 
on board of the steamer " Ashland," taken to 
Hilton Head Harbor, and transferred to the 
steamship " Illinois," and sent back to Fort 
Delaware prison. On comparing numbers — 
leaving out those exchanged and those who 
deserted — we found that twenty-five per cent. 



THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED 

of our number had died from the brutal treat- 
ment. The " Illinois " was a troop ship, dirty, 
but not one hundredth part as filthy and dirty 
as was the steamer '* Crescent City," that 
brought us from Fort Delaware to Morris 
Island, in August, 1864. 

You can tell the story of the trip better 
than I can. You had a diary. Tell it, dear 
old comrade. The world must know how 
brutal we were treated; and do not forget, 
you must put in big type the seventeen de- 
serters who took the oath. 

Sincerely your comrade and friend, 
W. D. Ballantine. 



232 




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Bedford 
Bedford 

Romney, W. Va. 
Hampshire Co. 


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Halifax Co. 
Albemarle Co. 
Charlottesville 
Little Plymouth 
Petersburg, Va. 
Upperville 
Hanover C. H. 
Charleston 
Louisa C. H. 
Wheeling, W. Va. 




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King William C. H. 
(Westmoreland 
Richmond 
Tazewell County 


Antioch, Dec. 29, 1864 jManassas Junction 
Markham Sta., Jan. 6, i864Warrenton 
Morton's Ford, Feb. 6, i864Steel's Tavern 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, i864Richmond 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, i864^aynesboro 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, 1864^^"^ Spring 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, 1864 Mt. Meridian 
Yellow Tavern, May 11, '64 Cobb's Creek 
Highland Co., Nov. 10, 1863 Beverly 
Loudoun Co., July 16, 1864 Wheeling 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, i863Campbell C. H. 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, i863Morgantown, W. Va 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863'King William C H. 


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Spotts. C. H., May i2, 1864 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, 1864 
Valley Pike, November, '63 
Wayne Co., Va., Feb. 15, '64 


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J. Ogden Murray 
W. Ashburn 


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Jas. H. Childs" 
S. F. Carson 
Jesse Childs 
Geo. H. Killian 
J. W. Gilkerson 
D. M. Layon, Adjt. 
R. B. Howlett 
0. H. P. Lewis 
M. W. Boggs 
J. Annington 
D. W. Garrett 
H. T. Coulter, Adjt*' 




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237 



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Franklin County 

Waynesboro 

Rocky Mount 

Marksville 

Patrick County 

Staunton 

Bowling Green 

Bowling Green 

Rocky Mount 

Clarksville 

Warsaw 

Edenburg 

Lexington 

Harrisonburg 

McGeahysville 


Staunton 
Lewisburg 


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Wilderness, May 5, 1864 
Aldie, April 23, 1864 
Leesburg, July 16, 1864 
Spotts. C. H., May 12, 1864 
Spotts. C H., May 12, 1864 
Spotts. C H., May 12, 1864 
Spotts. C H., May 12, 1864 
Spotts. C H., May 12, 1864 
Spotts. C H., May 12, 1864 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863 
Ashland, 1864 

Near Romney, Feb. 2, 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Near Wash., D. C, July, '64 




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T. S. Mitchell 

P. M. Dalton 

H. L. Hoover 

T. J. Kirk 

T. C. Chanler, Capt 

A. A. Angle 

G. W. Finly 

W. McGauley 

J. C. Allen 

L. B. Doyle* 

C. B. Eastham 

J. H. Hawkins 


T. S. Doyle 
J. W. A. Ford 



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'64 Cokesburg, S. C. 
[864 Charleston 
[864 Spartanburg 

'64Polksburg 
[864Vorkville 

'64Kvaterboro 
[864 Charleston 

'64 Charleston 

'64 Charleston 

'64 Bennetsville 

'64'Timminsville 
[863 Charleston 
53 (Chester District 


Wilderness, May 5, 1864 Unionville 
Wilderness, May 5, 1864 Cherokee 
Rocky Creek Sta., May 4, '64 Spartanburg 
Coal Harbor, May 20, i864Timminsville 


Stony Creek Va., May 7, 
Louisa C. H., June 11, ] 
Petersburg, Va., May 7, 
Garrett's Station, May 8, 
Wilderness, Va., May 6, 
Petersburg, Va., May 13, 
Hawes Shop, May 28, 
Petersburg, Va., June 24 
Trevillians, Va., May 12, 
Petersburg, Va., June 18 
Petersburg, Va., June 11, 
Gettysburg, Pa., July 4, 
Martinsburg, July 19, 18 


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P. B. Martin 
D. C. Moore 
S. B. Mecham 


W. L. Campbell 
Thos. Pinckney 
Jas. M. Mulvaney* 
T. M. Easterday 
W. H. Covington 
H. J. Clifton 
W. S. Bisseir 
S. T. Anderson 
J. B. Gallman 


N. B. Lusk 
J. A. Garrett 
J. G. Hallford 



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Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
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Petersburg, Va., June, 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
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Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
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Kinston, N. C, 1864 
Washington, Dec. 16, 1863 
Gettysburg, July 4, 1864 
Hanover Jet., Va., May, '64 


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Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
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Wilderness, May 6, 1864 


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H. J. Jenkins 
J. W. Brothers 
T. B. Henderson 
T. M. Allen 
B. W. Burkhead 


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J. H. Daiden 
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Coal Harbor, 1864 
Gaines' Farm, 1864 
Gettysburg, July, 1863 
Gettysburg, July, 1863 
Cumberland Gap, Sept., '63 
Wilderness, 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Coal Harbor, 1864 
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Trevillian Station, 1864 
Trevillian Station, 1864 


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W. C. Cherry 
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F. N. Graves 
D. W. Goodwin 
T. J. Gurr 


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G. H. Ford 
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New Orleans, La. 

Natchez 

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Holmes County 

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Byhalia 

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Grenada 

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Corinth, May, 1863 
Spottsylvania, C. H., 1864 
Petersburg, Va., 1864 
Port Hudson, Va., 1863 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 
Trevillian Station, 1864 
Clayborne, Miss., Feb., 1864 
Tupelo, May, 1863 
Gettysburg, Pa., July, 1863 
Port Hudson, July, 1863 
Port Hudson, July, 1863 
Falling Waters, Va., July, '63 
Cheeter Gap, July, 1863 
Chickahominy, Va., 1863 
Spottsylvania C. H., 1864 




4J 

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32d Inft. 
48th Inft. 
I2th Inft. 

P. Cav. 
1 2th Inft. 

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P. Cav. 

2d Inft. 
27th Inft. 

1st Inft. 

1st Inft. 
42d Inft. 
1 2th Inft. 
29th Inft. 
48th Inft. 




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Not under fire, 42. 

Total number sent from Fort Delaware, 600. 

This list was made October 16, 1864; changes not 
noted except removal of Captain Boyd and the wounding 
of Captain Blair and Lieutenant Harris by negro sentinel 
at Morris Island, S. C. 



268 




I.IEUTe:nanT GEO. F. REISER 
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